Cover -- Half title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Historical Role of an Imagined Place -- Part I: Continental Preconditions to American Independence -- 1 Scientific Trends, Continental Conceptions, Revolutionary Implications -- 2 The Geopolitical Continent, 1713-1763 -- 3 Continental Crisis, 1763-1774 -- Part II: Creating a Continental Empire -- 4 Nationalism's Nature: Congress's Continental Aspect -- 5 Nationalism's Nurture: War, Peace, and the Continental Character of the United States, 1775-1783 -- 6 Ordering Lands and Peoples: Scientific and Imperial Contexts of the Late Eighteenth Century -- 7 Seizing Nature's Advantages: The Constitution and the Continent, 1783-1789 -- Epilogue: The Continent from on High -- Notes -- Index.