Beyond Confederation: Origins of the Constitution and American National IdentityBeyond Confederation scrutinizes the ideological background of the U. S. Constitution, the rigors of its writing and ratification, and the problems it both faced and provoked immediately after ratification. The essays in this collection question much of the heritage of eighteenth century constitutional thought and suggest that many of the commonly debated issues have led us away from the truly germane questions. The authors challenge many of the