"Crafted by an editor of John Marshall's papers, this volume presents a meticulous and fully documented study of a critical episode in American diplomacy that almost caused a war between the US and France in 1798. Stinchcombe engages the reader's interest through carefully focused chapters that mingle description with analysis in the unfolding story." -- Choice.

Mystery writer Dani Quinn hasn't been home for years. Once she put Casper, Wyoming, in her rearview mirror, she expected it to stay a distant childhood memory. But when her second marriage ends and a University teaching job in her hometown is offered, the single mom loads her three children in her Suburban and heads west. Casper, which many locals refer to as the "Ghost Town," holds its own ghosts that emerge when Dani returns home. When human skeletal remains are unearthed during renovations on campus, the University tries to keep the story buried. But skeletons and secrets are too irresistible for any mystery writer to ignore, and Dani finds herself in the center of a decades old mystery. She gets help from Chris Gorham (aka Gorm) her parents' hot new neighbor, who follows the Code of the West and offers to help the newly divorced damsel in distress. But Gorm has hidden secrets that Dani unintentionally unburies along with the skeleton. Dani recognizes the Greek letters, XYZ, on the fraternity ring found with the skeletal remains, and the mystery suddenly hits too close to home. Why the ring and the bones have been shelved by the University is just one of the many questions she has. The answers may cost not only her job, but her life.

The momentous story of how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams navigated the crises of the 1790s and in the process bound the states into a unified nation Today the United States is the dominant power in world affairs, and that status seems assured. Yet in the decade following the ratification of the Constitution, the republic's existence was contingent and fragile, challenged by domestic rebellions, foreign interference, and the always-present danger of collapse into mob rule. Carol Berkin reveals that the nation survived almost entirely due to the actions of the Federalist leadership -- George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams. Reacting to successive crises, they extended the power of the federal government and fended off foreign attempts to subvert American sovereignty. As Berkin argues, the result was a spike in nationalism, as ordinary citizens began to identify with their nation first, their home states second. While the Revolution freed the states and the Constitution linked them as never before, this landmark work shows that it was the Federalists who transformed the states into an enduring nation.

What happens to democracy when dissent is treated as treason? In May 1798, after Congress released the XYZ Affair dispatches to the public, a raucous crowd took to the streets of Philadelphia. Some gathered to pledge their support for the government of President John Adams, others to express their disdain for his policies. Violence, both physical and political, threatened the safety of the city and the Union itself. To combat the chaos and protect the nation from both external and internal threats, the Federalists swiftly enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts. Oppressive pieces of legislation aimed at separating so-called genuine patriots from objects of suspicion, these acts sought to restrict political speech, whether spoken or written, soberly planned or drunkenly off-the-cuff. Little more than twenty years after Americans declared independence and less than ten since they ratified both a new constitution and a bill of rights, the acts gravely limited some of the very rights those bold documents had promised to protect. In The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, Terri Diane Halperin discusses the passage of these laws and the furor over them, as well as the difficulties of enforcement. She describes in vivid detail the heated debates and tempestuous altercations that erupted between partisan opponents: one man pulled a gun on a supporter of the act in a churchyard; congressmen were threatened with arrest for expressing their opinions; and printers were viciously beaten for distributing suspect material. She also introduces readers to the fraught political divisions of the late 1790s, explores the effect of immigration on the new republic, and reveals the dangers of partisan excess throughout history. Touching on the major sedition trials while expanding the discussion beyond the usual focus on freedom of speech and the press to include the treatment of immigrants, Halperin’s book provides a window through which readers can explore the meaning of freedom of speech, immigration, citizenship, the public sphere, the Constitution, and the Union.