A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism

Berkin (history, City Univ. of New York; Civil War Wives) scrutinizes four crises of the 1790s to tell the story of how the Federalist party, under the leadership of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams, united the nation under the authority of the federal government. The author's core argument suggests that the Federalist response to the Whiskey Rebellion, the Genet affair, the XYZ affair, and the Alien and Sedition Acts not only extended the scope of the government's power but also shifted people's negative perception of the government, giving rise to American nationalism. This work expands readers' understanding of the shifting loyalties from Washington the individual to the office of the president to the shared identity of the American people and finally to the U.S. Constitution itself. A solid companion to Eliga H. Gould's Among the Powers of the Earth for developing a nuanced take on how the nascent U.S. government solidified its power in the eyes of the American people and the world.