Federalism

An excellent resource, with pro and con primary documents, on eight watershed events touching on the issue of federalism over the course of American history. The issues and controversies surrounding the creation of our federal republic and the rights of the federal government have reverberated over more than 200 years of American history in many subsequent watershed events. Students will be able to debate these issues as they played out in eight crises from 1787 to the beginning of the 21st century by using this rich resource of expert commentary and 54 primary documents contemporary to the time, all carefully selected to represent a variety of views on each issue. Events range from the creation of the federal republic to the ongoing controversy over women's rights and abortion. Primary documents include presidential letters and speeches, newspaper opinion pieces, first-person accounts and letters, Supreme Court decisions, congressional debates, statutes, resolutions, and political party platforms. Crises covered here in chronological order are the creation of the federal republic, the Sedition Act of 1798, the Nullification Crisis, the Compromise of 1850, Plessy v. Ferguson on racial segregation, New Deal federalism, Brown v. Board of Education on federalism and civil rights, and the role of the Supreme Court in women's rights and abortion. Each entry contains a helpful narrative overview of the event and the positions of the opposing sides, followed by the judiciously edited text of three to seven primary documents reflecting directly opposing contemporary viewpoints on the issue. Each document is preceded by an explanatory note. The documents provide insight into the views of people involved in the decisions on each issue, as well as insight into the fundamental differences of political thought over the issue of federal power. A narrative introduction to the issue of federalism over American history will help students to put the events in context and a chronology of events and a bibliography of books and Web sites will assist the student researcher.