PRINT | CLOSE WINDOW
The Creation of a New Nation explores that critical period in our history following the Revolutionary War and leading up to the writing of the Constitution, and finishing with a look at the early Presidents.

The Creation of a New Nation

  1. When Does the Revolution End?
    1. The Declaration of Independence and Its Legacy
    2. The War Experience: Soldiers, Officers, and Civilians
    3. The Loyalists
    4. Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Slavery
    5. Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Women
    6. Revolutionary Limits: Native Americans
    7. Revolutionary Achievement: Yeomen and Artisans
    8. The Age of Atlantic Revolutions
  2. Making Rules
    1. State Constitutions
    2. Articles of Confederation
    3. Evaluating the Congress
    4. The Economic Crisis of the 1780s
  3. Drafting the Constitution
    1. Shays' Rebellion
    2. A Cast of National Superstars
    3. The Tough Issues
    4. Constitution Through Compromise
  4. Ratifying the Constitution
    1. Federalists
    2. Antifederalists
    3. The Ratification Process: State by State
    4. After the Fact: Virginia, New York, and "The Federalist Papers"
    5. The Antifederalists' Victory in Defeat
  5. George Washington
    1. Growing up in Colonial Virginia
    2. The Force of Personality and Military Command
    3. The First Administration
    4. Farewell Address
    5. Mount Vernon and the Dilemma of a Revolutionary Slave Holder
  6. Unsettled Domestic Issues
    1. The Bill of Rights
    2. Hamilton's Financial Plan
    3. Growing Opposition
    4. U.S. Military Defeat; Indian Victory in the West
    5. Native American Resilience and Violence in the West
  7. Politics in Transition: Public Conflict in the 1790s
    1. Trans-Atlantic Crisis: The French Revolution
    2. Negotiating with the Superpowers
    3. Two Parties Emerge
    4. The Adams Presidency
    5. The Alien and Sedition Acts
    6. The Life and Times of John Adams
  8. Jeffersonian America: A Second Revolution?
    1. The Election of 1800
    2. Jeffersonian Ideology
    3. Westward Expansion: The Louisiana Purchase
    4. A New National Capital: Washington, D.C.
    5. A Federalist Stronghold: John Marshall's Supreme Court
    6. Gabriel's Rebellion: Another View of Virginia in 1800
  9. The Expanding Republic and the War of 1812
    1. The Importance of the West
    2. Exploration: Lewis and Clark
    3. Diplomatic Challenges in an Age of European War
    4. Native American Resistance in the Trans-Appalachian West
    5. The Second War for American Independence
    6. Claiming Victory from Defeat
  10. Social Change and National Development
    1. Economic Growth and the Early Industrial Revolution
    2. Cotton and African-American Life
    3. Religious Transformation and the Second Great Awakening
    4. Institutionalizing Religious Belief: The Benevolent Empire
    5. New Roles for White Women
    6. Early National Arts and Cultural Independence
  11. Politics and the New Nation
    1. The Era of Good Feelings and the Two-Party System
    2. The Expansion of the Vote: A White Man's Democracy
    3. The Missouri Compromise
    4. The 1824 Election and the "Corrupt Bargain"
    5. John Quincy Adams
    6. Jacksonian Democracy and Modern America

CLOSE WINDOW