The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government

The First Congress was the most important in U.S. history, says prizewinning author and historian Fergus Bordewich, because it established how our government would actually function. Had it failed-as many at the time feared it would-it's possible that the United States as we know it would not exist today.



The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work....