Crisis of the House Never United

A Novel of Early America

By: Chuck DeVore

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

The Crisis of the House Never United chronicles an alternate early American history through the eyes of Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and a rich cast of supporting characters trying to make their way in tumultuous times, navigating rebellion, resentment, and foreign intrigue.

As Americans grappled with how best to govern themselves, it was a time of maximum danger and heated passions when men were not yet sure as to whether ballots or bullets would decide the fates of governments.

The infant America was organized under the Articles of Confederation, a weak system of national government in which the states reigned supreme.

The Crisis of the House Never United explores a highly probable early history of the United States, one in which ratification of the Constitution failed and the loosely bound states broke apart in a divorce, some 60 years before the Civil War, though for largely different reasons.

This early national divorce is more relevant than ever with increasing talk among pundits of a so-called “national divorce” as Americans grow weary of each other. On one side, the proclivity to use increasingly vast federal powers—whether through Congress acting as the people’s elected representatives, or through unelected bureaucrats wielding regulatory powers—has made large segments of society wishing to be left alone. On the other side, the demand to conform, to trade some freedom for security or collective equality (real or perceived) has caused some to wonder if they’d be better off without the benighted populations of flyover country.

These complaints that threaten to escalate into unrest are a symptom of a deeper problem, namely, that our Constitutional order appears to be breaking down. Rather than a federal system with strong checks and balances, both at the national level and checked by the states, power has been increasingly centralized in Washington, D.C. with much of that power held by the administrative state—a sprawling professional bureaucracy.

Yet our Constitution is the world's best—should we choose to follow it. And it almost didn't happen.

In addition to "Crisis of the House Never United," Chuck DeVore is the author of "China Attacks," a novel, and "Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America." DeVore is an executive with the Texas Public Policy Foundation and is a senior contributor to The Federalist. He served as a California State Assemblyman for six years. He's a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.