The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution: The History of Early America's Struggle to Establish a Functional Federal Government

Of all the celebrated documents in American history, one of the relics of history is the Articles of Confederation, which have been reduced to a footnote. In fact, Americans often overlook the years between the negotiation of peace in 1783 and the drafting of the Constitution in 1787, but to understand the Constitution, it's necessary to understand why it was drafted in the first place.

After the Revolution, the new United States attempted to operate under the Articles of Confederation, wh...