The Federalist Papers - Hardcover

Alexander Hamilton; John Jay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0899666957 ISBN 13: 9780899666952

Publisher: Buccaneer Books, 1990

Synopsis

Written at a time when furious arguments were raging about the best way to govern America, "The Federalist Papers" had the immediate practical aim of persuading New Yorkers to accept the newly drafted Constitution in 1787. In this they were supremely successful, but their influence also transcended contemporary debate to win them a lasting place in discussions of American political theory. Acclaimed by Thomas Jefferson as 'the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written', "The Federalist Papers" make a powerful case for power-sharing between State and Federal authorities and for a Constitution that has endured largely unchanged for two hundred years.

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:

Isaac Kramnick is Professor of Government at Cornell and introduced the new edition of Democracy in America for Penguin Classics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Buccaneer Books
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0899666957
• ISBN 13: 9780899666952
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 483
• Editor: Clinton Rossiter