Articles of Confederation

I'm looking for some books, short articles, whatever debating whether or not the US could have continued (and been better off) with the less centralized Articles of Confederation rather than the Constitution. I've read some of the debates and federalist/anti-fed papers but what I'm really looking for is something defending against the common assumption that we NEEDED the Constitution. In other words, what you're taught in public school is that pre-Constitution America was a failure, nothing was working, we NEEDED more centralized power or else America would have collapsed completely as a nation. I've read people to the contrary claiming that we were fine under the AoC and the Federalists just wanted more power, but nothing with substantial facts/evidence to defend the theory. Any info would be appreciated.

 Have you read Rethinking the Articles of Confederation on Mises.org yet?

I have actually drafted a revised version of the original Articles, to replace the current Constitution.  I personally would much rather prefer a loose confederation over what we have today.