Larsen Plyler

Ryan McMaken and historian Larsen Plyler talk about how the Americans of the 1770s envisioned a new community of independent and sovereign states. The first constitution made this clear. But then the new counterrevolutionaries like Hamilton wrote a new constitution designed to create one big national state with vast new powers.

The original 13 British colonies that made up the early United States had very different populations with decidedly different political and social outlooks.

The standard explanation for the Constitutional Convention was that the Articles of Confederation were a failure. However, the Articles actually worked the way they were supposed to work. Unfortunately, the advocates of a strong central government ultimately got their way.