“Characteristically incisive and refreshing. . . . It represents the fruits of years of reflection and research into the relationship between Great Britain and her American colonies, and how that relationship affected developments in the early Republic.” — [London] Times Higher Education Supplement

To Great Britain in the seventeenth century, and then to the fledgling United States, no problem was more urgent than how to divide authority between local powers and the governing central power. In this book the noted colonial historian Jack P. Greene traces the search for solutions.