“Selected with imagination and wisdom, these incisive and wide-ranging texts will provide a ‘road map’ for students of the first sixty years of American independence.” “A nice blend of comprehensiveness and coherence, the selections are individually interesting, relate well to each other, and provide a wide-ranging, imaginative, and disciplined conversation about the Early Republic.” “This handy collection of speeches, documents, private letters, and pieces of literature, complete with context-setting prefaces, will be invaluable in any course covering major themes in the history of early national America.” “Expertly edited and chock-full of enlightening and telling primary documents, this reader conveys a beautifully textured sense of the past and attends to all of the key issues during the formative years of the United States.” “Finally, a primary sources reader that includes the full breadth of voices (both familiar and lesser known) that characterized the Early American Republic. Sean Adams’s informative introduction ties these voices together well, making this book a helpful teaching tool for conveying the rich variety of social and political issues that the young nation faced.” “Students will marvel at the fifty-year struggle to forge a nation in the decades following the American Revolution.”