The Federalist Papers (Dover Thrift Editions: American History)

I borrowed my review of the Anti-Federalist Papers and include them here. To really grasp the United States, the huge diffetences of opinion that are encouraged here, and the huge balancing acts that had to happen to create this nation, both of these volumes need to be tead by all Americans. This is a great book to have along with the Anti-Federalist Papers, written by Patrick Henry and other Founders. This is where our Bill of Rights, our first 10 Amendments, came from. I gave this book, along with the Anti-Federalist Papers, as a gift to my granddaughter for her high school graduation. She wants to major in Law and Political Science as she heads off to college this Fall. These two volumes taken together are the greatest political science writings in history, in my view! The United States that we have today came very close to never being formed in the late 1780s, after the long and bloody Revolutionary War. There was then, as there is still today, bitter disputes over the role that government is to play in the lives of a free people. Some people, it seems, are just born to have to order the affairs of everyone else - and the Framers just concluded a hellish war to rid themselves of the tyranny of a monarch and oing exactly that! They certainly did not want to create another tyranny, even one that was based here at home! A stronger national government was needed for defense, commerce, treaties, disputes, etc, but it could quickly become the source of an even worse tyranny than what the King was before. The Constitutional Convention, May through September 1787 in Philadelphia, created a Compact among sovereign States that, IF ratified by at least 9 States, would form a stronger government for the new Federation of States. As Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison were doing in more than 75 published essays in 1787 and 1788 (called "The Federalist Papers") to explain and sell the need for this Constitution, and the safeguards they had designed into this new government, they were opposed by none other than Patrick Henry, George Mason and others. Opponents were rightly concerned that, even though the Concentration of Governing Power (which always results in tyranny) was present in the Constitution, there were not enough safeguards in it to prevent abuse, opponents believed. The Federal Government, which is not a PARTY to the Constitution but is rather the PRODUCT of it, exists to help the States in listed areas of governing only. But that limitation was not clearly-enough called out to suit Henry, Mason and their supporters. The Pro Constitutionalists had the very same fears, but they thought they had addressed them in the proposed Constitution. In fact, they thought that by listing a Bill of Rights, the Founders would miss including some and that those omitted Rights would them be easily taken away by a menacing group in government! The clash of these two viewpoints - and they continue right through to today - resulted in our Constitution being adopted, and almost immediately being amended to build a stronger Cage around our Federal Government to further limit what it might be tempted to do. This clash is truly an American thing! (Madison described "the great dilemma we have" - to create a government with enough power to govern but not enough to become thrannical - in Federalist #51!) The Anti-Federalist Papers, along qith the Federalist Papers, is a great recitation of the well-founded fears of government that Americans had at our Founding. Those fears still exist to some extent today. It's a must-read for all Americans, as we all have a role to play in passing on individual liberties to the next generations that follow. This volume does a great job of that. Thumbs up!

Intense reading and informative.

My husband was very happy with his book.

It’s a fascinating read, helps me understand what was at stake in those days after the winning of independence but before the unification around a national constitution. Don’t be afraid of the 18th century language, it is at first at times difficult to grasp but it becomes easier with effort.

I looked all over this website for a book that contains the Federalist Papers and the Constitution. I found a version of this book, but it wasn't exactly it. I was trying to be really careful because the reviews show up on different versions of different books they are described as if they have both the Federalist Papers and the Constitution - not the same publisher!!! Amazon needs to fix that first. The ISBN for this edition is 978-0486496368 - a different reviewer included this information, and it was the only reason why I was finally able to find it. In any case, I was looking for a book that contained the Federalist Papers and The Constitution for my niece's AP U.S. Government course. This edition does contain all 85 of The Federalist Papers, though, high school and college usually on focus on a few. This is a really nice paperback edition, and worth the $7. It contains a preface, and Alexander Hamilton's general introduction. This would be perfect if it included The Constitution, so 4 stars.

Thorough compilation of the arguments in favor of ratifying the Constitution. Most (but not all) of the arguments made by the federalists back then were convincing and have proven to be accurate even to the present day. One federalist argument that was not convincing was that a Bill of Rights was not necessary. I think many (hopefully most) Americans agree that federalists' opposition to a Bill of Rights was wrong. In a very real sense, both the federalist and anti-federalists "won" the battle over ratification of the Constitution.

Don’t believe the summaries. Go to the original text and read the short chapters that interest you for yourself. Think for yourself. And no, it’s not you. Hamilton isn’t the best writer. Great ideas but he could have used a good editor.

Per the headline - this book should be taught throughout a standard public education, regardless of your political persuasion. In fact, I would go so far as to say that were this book to be taught throughout a standard public education, political persuasion would become nearly irrelevant insofar as the common welfare of our Republic is concerned. The things I learned in the first forty pages of these papers would solve 99% of the problems suffered by contemporary partisanship (factions) in the United States of America. These papers existed for one simple purpose - to make an argument, to the common man, in favor of reconstituting our Republic under "a more perfect Union", as defined by this new constitution. It, of course, succeeded - which is amazing considering the political climate of that time. Cut to 2018: The common refrain of all the partisans today is "you don't understand The Constitution!" In fact, based on what these papers convey most accurately today, I am convinced that very few citizens, particularly the most partisan, actually understand The Constitution. Reading the actual document, however, will not provide the WHY behind it - leaving us to argue out what we THINK the writers intended. If only we had access to what they were thinking in direct, original and unvarnished letters organized and focused specifically on the WHY of each and every element of that document. We do. They are the Federalist Papers, and it is a crime that we force our children to memorize what day Washington crossed the Delaware, and fail to teach this collection of writings. We reap what we sow, and what we sow is ignorance.

I'm making a presentation about Hamilton and this helps me a lot.

Bought as a present and it was greatly appreciated. Fantastic price, quick delivey

Livro ótimo. Tem uma leitura relativamente densa, precisa de certo nível em inglês.

I read these a while back and felt with all the craziness of what is happening it is best to have a paper copy around that I can enjoy reading before someone decides to retroactively change it.

The content is excellent, but in my opinion the type size (maybe 8pt) and proved to be annoying.