Noble Undertaking : Volume 1: The Continental Congress and the American Revolution, 1774–78

news, and sent off pleas for someoneanyoneto come take their place. For many, serving in Congress meant mostly drudgery, frustration, and anxiety, all while far from home.Yet this feeble government succeeded. Without a constitution, it kept the fragile union together. Without taxing authority, it financed the war and maintained an army in the field. Its diplomatic team, despite treachery and ineptitude, engineered a critical alliance. In 1778, as Congress returned to Philadelphia from York, the war was far from over. Indeed, it was not even half over. But the path to an honorable peace was in view. Congress, for all its many flaws, astonished the world by bringing forth a new republic and setting it on course for a promising destiny. [Publisher's Text]