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

Fergus M. Bordewich

May 2016 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Sean Runnette

About this audiobook

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. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others less well known today, rose to the occasion. During two years of often fierce political struggle, they passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution; they resolved bitter regional rivalries to choose the site of the new national capital; they set in place the procedure for admitting new states to the union; and much more. But the First Congress also confronted some issues that remain to this day: the conflict between states' rights and the powers of national government; the proper balance between legislative and executive power; the respective roles of the federal and state judiciaries; and funding the central government.

About the author

Fergus M. Bordewich is the author of several books, among them Washington: The Making of the American Capital; Bound for Canaan; and America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in history.

Sean Runnette, a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has also produced several Audie Award-winning audiobooks. His film and television appearances include Two If by Sea, Copland, Sex and the City, Law & Order, Third Watch, and lots and lots of commercials.