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!

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.

After a lifetime of watching the government and the SCOTUS make sweeping, unconstitutional decisions I found the existence of this book shocking. Our founding fathers laid out everything (for the most part) to avoid wild interpretations, but they don't want us to know that because they bend our Constitution every which a way to work their agenda. I wish I could afford a million of these. I would stand outside the DNC and hand them out. We have not been educated, because a stupid public is a malleable public. EDUCATED YOURSELF!

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.

written in normal english, not the old 1700's style so its easy to read

Intense reading and informative.

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.

The Federalist Papers are a series of essays by three authors, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, written and published with a purpose. That was to convince readers that the new Constitution, commissioned by Congress under the Articles of Confederation, ought to be ratified by the states. Some editions and popular web sites try to attribute contemporary political agendas to these essays. They excise quotes from their contexts and append private letters by authors from the other side or from contexts outside the Federalist debate of 1787 to 1792. Beware of imposters. Here are the original essays in all their unencumbered and somewhat tedious glory.

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

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.

Excelente

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