Building a New Nation: The Federalist Era: 1789-1801

The Drama of American History

By: James Lincoln Collier, Christopher Collier

Narrated by: Jim Manchester

Building a New Nation chronicles the development of the new government following the signing of the Constitution. It explores the political views of the young nation’s leaders as they struggled to form a strong nation, despite the foreign and domestic dilemmas that they faced. The authors describe the beginnings of the two-party system, the administrations of the first three presidents, and key decisions by each branch of the government that shaped the future of the country.

©1997 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier (P)2013 AudioGO

US Government Insight

Great insight into the US Government and how and why it developed. A valuable read for residents of the US

Good overview but omits critical elements

This has very good content regarding key issues in history as well as details of history. And it is for young people, but that doesn't mean critical facts that are unsavory should be avoided. The portion on George Washington at Mount Vernon that refers to his directions to "stewards" -- these were enslaved people, not paid stewards. Why try to camouflage such an important piece of history?
Another example is the description of the 1800 election and how the two new parties campaigned against each other. It refers to Federalists claims that included the charge that Jefferson had illegitimate children. The text then states that the claims were lies. It's surprising that any historians would still deny Jefferson had children with Sally Hemmings. Leave this charge out if it's not the right age to bring up this topic, but don't state that this claim was a lie. I found such examples a deep disappointment. The founding fathers were not perfect or American history for that matter -- children should know that.

The Founding of Our Government

“Building a New Nation: The Federalist Era, 1789-1891” is another in the series by Christopher and James Collier geared to younger readers of history. This series, instead of a chronological and dates/people focus, attempts to zero in on periods, movements, and locations that were important to the overall progress of American history. They are all relatively short, about 100 pages or 2 hours for the audio versions. This one is 96 pages, or 1 hour and 50 minutes for the audio version.
This book deals with, not the founding of the nation, but, in a sense, the founding of the government we know today. By that I don’t mean the Constitution which was the document that our founders came up with to describe the kind of government that they wanted. Since it had not been put into practice, that was still theoretical and there were many who doubted whether it would work. You may remember the famous story of Elizabeth Powel who asked Benjamin Franklin about the result of the Constitutional Convention, whether it would be a monarchy or republic and his answer, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin didn’t doubt that we could keep it, but he did express the possibility that we wouldn’t at some time. But that is a digression, since this book is about those first years when we actually started creating the government. The Constitution was the blueprint. These years were the construction of the building, or at least its foundations.
We often forget that the Constitution is a relatively brief document and when compared to many legal documents today, it is extremely compact. It was up to the first few presidents, congressmen, and justices to actually make it work, to fill out that Constitution with precedents and practices that have been built upon over the centuries into what we now have. This period covers the period when Washington and John Adams were presidents, the time of those who would fit into the Federalist camp, those who believed in a stronger central government, as opposed to the Jeffersonians who tended to a weaker central government with more powers delegated to the states (though when Jefferson himself became president, he actually expanded presidential powers much further than his predecessors, thus making the central government stronger).
This was the most important time in our history. Most failed democracies fail within the first few years and scholars agree that it could have easily happened to the US but didn’t in large part because of Washington. Washington was not an intellectual, but he did not grasp for power and he was not threatened by gathering great people around him. He leaned heavily on Alexander Hamilton who laid the strong financial foundation of our government but also developed border policies, the Coast Guard, and many other institutions that gave us the strength and stability needed in those early years. Washington also brought in Thomas Jefferson as his Secretary of State, a man who was polar opposite in many areas, showing his belief that government was not only for the majority, but for all.
Written for youth, it’s still an interesting summary for adults.

Outstanding!

One of the finest American history series of all time. Absolutely stunning... Content, presentation, etc. are all first class.

beautiful 😍!

I love these series! america the beautiful! I appreciate our history and so grateful for all of the people that sacrificed and helped build our constitution.

Building a new nation

Building the new nation and its struggling detail and story details and opinions. Great voice and narrative.

Persuasive and a bit biased.

Washington wasn't a Federalist. This is: Too Persuasive and lacks important info. Too harsh defining Federalists like Hamilton. Also doesn't mentioned that Jefferson won because of how the south manipulated the slave vote. Also it wasn't that Washington loved visitors, they wouldn't stop showing up to visit the celebrity he was. But this does have some good general knowledge so still with a listen.