The Rise of the Federal Colossus: The Growth of Federal Power from Lincoln to F.D.R.   offers readers a front-row seat for the debate over the proper extent of federal authority that extended from the Civil War to the Great Depression.  The Rise of the Federal Colossus argues that the critical period in the growth of federal power was not the New Deal and the three decades that followed, but the preceding seventy-two years when important precedents recognizing the national government's authority to aid citizens in distress, regulate labor, and foster economic growth were established.  By the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration, the constitutional impediments to an activist federal government had already been severely eroded.   The Rise of the Federal Colossus  shows how inadequate state responses to the enormous changes that took place in American life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led many to demand federal action.  It reviews the enactment of laws expanding the scope of federal activity as well as debates over the constitutionality of these measures.  It also weighs landmark legislation of the period against the original understanding of the powers of Congress and examines how Americans approached the long-running debate over how the Constitution should be interpreted.  Court opinions that serve as landmarks in the expansion of federal authority are also surveyed.  The book also explores newspaper and magazine articles that reveal how Americans reacted to the growth of federal power.  It places the evolution of the federal system in the context of the political contests of the period and reveals how questions of federalism dominated the national political stage during the middle third of our nation's history. "Zavodnyik presents a valuable new contribution to Praeger's "American Political Culture" series ... Summing Up: Recommended." --Choice "A libertarian-inflected account that responsibly reinforces the main findings of political and legal historians...Readers in search of an exhaustive account of the activities of the federal government and the expansion of its impact on society will find value in Zavodnyik's narrative."--J.S. Smith, Associate Professor of History, University of New Mexico, Journal of American History "An impressive overview of the sometimes surreptitious growth of the power of the federal government from the Civil War through the 1920s. Zavodnyik shows that even during times in which the ideology of extensive federal power was not generally supported, incremental growth in the regulatory and redistributive powers of the federal government took place." -- G. Edward White, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor, University of Virginia School of Law, 9/29/2010 "Zavodnyik's comprehensive study of the politics of national consolidation from 1860 to 1933 points to one conclusion: the demise of the Founder's republic began long before Progressives and New Dealers came to power. This book makes it impossible to deny that there is something more authentically American and home grown about big government than we ever imagined." --Richard M. Gamble, Anna Margaret Ross Alexander Professor of History and Political Science, Hillsdale College, 10/12/2010 "An encyclopedic survey of the expanding role of the federal government from the Civil War to the Great Depression , Peter Zavodnyik's The Rise of the Federal Colossus provides a substantial evidentiary base for future inquiries into the complex relationships among the federal, state, local and private sources of power in American life during this period. It will assist scholars who seek a better understanding of the ways in which the modern American state emerged out of, and differed from, that seed-time of federal power." -- Morton Keller, Spector Professor of History, emeritus, Brandeis University. "Readers in search of an exhaustive account of the activities of the federal government and the expansion of its impact on society will find value in Zavodnyik's narrative. The author seemingly leaves no piece of evidence behind in his attempt to document carefully the different ways that federal authority operated between 1865 and 1933.... A libertarian-inflected account that responsibly reinforces the main findings of political and legal historians." Jason Scott Smith, Journal of American History. "The most complete account of the history of American federalism is Peter A. Zavodnyik's two volumes The Age of Strict Construction (2007) and The Rise of the Federal Colossus (2011)." Michael Les Benedict, The Blessings of Liberty: A Concise History of the Constitution of the United States., xiv. The Rise of the Federal Colossus explains how the modest national government of antebellum America overcame the limitations imposed upon it by a Constitution that enumerated its powers and evolved into the all-powerful entity that today plays such a dominant and pervasive role in the lives of Americans. The h