Description: The eighty-five Federalist essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison as 'Publius' to support the ratification of the Constitution in 1787-88 are regarded as the preeminent American contribution to Western political theory. Recently, there have been major developments in scholarship on the Revolutionary and Founding era as well as increased public interest in constitutional matters that make this a propitious moment to reflect on the contributions and complexity of The Federalist. This volume of specially commissioned essays covers the broad scope of 'Publius' work, including historical, political, philosophical, juridical, and moral dimensions. In so doing, they bring the design and arguments of the text into focus for twenty-first century scholars, students, and citizens and show how these diverse treatments of The Federalist are associated with an array of substantive political and constitutional perspectives in our own time.
Brief description: Jack N. Rakove is William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science and (by courtesy) Law at Stanford University, California. He is the author of seven books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (1996).
Review Quotes: 'The Cambridge Companion to the Federalist shows both the strengths and weaknesses of keeping the focus exclusively on the men in the room and those they read. It does an excellent job of introducing to a wider audience a great shift in thinking about the Constitution and the Federalists ...' Andrew Shankman, Project Muse