1. The Fiftieth State: Rethinking Hawai?i’s Path to Incorporation • Maye Henning, University of Portland.

2. State Formation in the Massachusetts Bay Colony: The Participatory Foundations of Church and Civil Government • Can Mert Kökerer, The University of Chicago.

3. Capitalism, Debt Imprisonment, and the Early American State • James Parisot, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley.

4. Patronage Politics in the Early American Republic: The Case of New York • Benjamin Rohr, University of Mannheim.