Federalist Papers - Softcover

Hamilton, Alexander; Madison, James; Jay, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553210726 ISBN 13: 9780553210729

Publisher: Bantam Books, 1982

Synopsis

The Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay, defend what was in their day a revolutionary charter--the Constitution of the United States of America. The Federalist Papers explain the complexities of a constitutional government its political structure & its principles based on the inherent rights of humans. Scholars have long regarded this work as a milestone in political science & a classic of American political theory. Editor's Introduction
Preface to the 2nd Edition
Preface to John Hopkins Edition
Papers 1-85
Acknowledgments
Annotative Appendix
Notes on Preface to 2nd Edition
Bibliographical Appendix, 1st edition
Bibliographical Appendix, 2nd edition
Selected bibliography
Index

About Alexander Hamilton :
“ Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher. He led calls for the Philadelphia Convention, was one of America's first Constitutional lawyers, and cowrote the Federalist Papers, a primary source for Constitutional interpretation.
Born on the West Indian island of Nevis, Hamilton was educated in North America. During the American Revolutionary War, he joined the American militia and was chosen artillery captain. Hamilton became senior aide-de-camp and confidant to General George Washington, and led three battalions at the Siege of Yorktown. He was elected to the Continental Congress, but resigned to practice law and to found the Bank of New York. He served in the New York Legislature, later returned to Congress, and was the only New York signer at the Philadelphia Convention. As Washington's Treasury Secretary, he influenced formative government policy widely. An admirer of British political systems, Hamilton emphasized strong central government and Implied Powers, under which the new U.S. Congress funded the national debt, assumed state debts, created a national bank, and established an import tariff and whiskey tax.

About this title

Review

"This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren ... should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties." So wrote John Jay, one of the revolutionary authors of The Federalist Papers, arguing that if the United States was truly to be a single nation, its leaders would have to agree on universally binding rules of governance--in short, a constitution. In a brilliant set of essays, Jay and his colleagues Alexander Hamilton and James Madison explored in minute detail the implications of establishing a kind of rule that would engage as many citizens as possible and that would include a system of checks and balances. Their arguments proved successful in the end, and The Federalist Papers stand as key documents in the founding of the United States.

About the Author

Review The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788. A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist; or, The New Constitution, was published in two volumes in 1788 by J. and A. McLean. The series' correct title is The Federalist; the title The Federalist Papers did not emerge until the twentieth century. The Federalist remains a primary source for interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. According to historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer." At the time of publication, the authorship of the articles was a closely-guarded secret, though astute observers guessed that Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were the likely authors. Following Hamilton's death in 1804, a list that he drew up became public; it claimed fully two-thirds of the essays for Hamilton, including some that seemed more likely the work of Madison (Nos. 49-58, 62, and 63). The scholarly detective work of Douglass Adair in 1944 postulated the following assignments of authorship, confirmed in 1964 by a computer analysis of the text: - Alexander Hamilton (51 articles: nos. 1, 6-9, 11-13, 15-17, 21-36, 59-61, and 65-85) - James Madison (29 articles: nos. 10, 14, 37-58 and 62-63) - John Jay (5 articles: 2-5 and 64). - Nos. 18-20 were the result of a collaboration between Madison and Hamilton.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0553210726
• ISBN 13: 9780553210729
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 478