University of Notre Dame Press Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance

This new edition of Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance, originally published in 1987, is an authoritative account of the origins and early history of American policy for territorial government, land distribution, and the admission of new states in the Old Northwest. In a new preface, Peter S. Onuf reviews important new work on the progress of colonization and territorial expansion in the rising American empire. Review Onuf explains why the ordinance came to be incorporated into the trinity of icons, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, as 'one of the title-deeds of American constitutional liberty' (from a speech by George F. Hoar). People living in other regions may not understand this, but a Midwesterner will find the resonance clear and unambiguous. --Carl Ubbelohde, The Annals of Iowa Onuf writes intellectual history of a high order. His book is a thoughtful and provocative inquiry into a subject that is in need of a full-dress reevaluation. --Bernard Sheehan, The Journal of American History Peter Onuf brings political and constitutional history together in Statehood and Union and illustrates the importance of the ordinance in shaping the Northwest. His work should be read by all early national historians. --Jeffrey Brown, Indiana Magazine of History About the Author Peter S. Onuf is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History, emeritus, at the University of Virginia. He is the author and co-author of fourteen books, including, with Annette Gordon-Reed, "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination.