The federalist; a collection of essays by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, interpreting the Constitution of the United States as agreed upon by the Federal convention, September 17, 1787

by Federalist

Genres: Classics, Nonfiction

Nook

Reviews

[Ben Mercurio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great information on viewing the US government from the founders perspective. Very tough reading though.

[Aspar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provides excellent insight into the minds of the arguably two most influential Founders, Hamilton and Madison (Jay's papers are largely irrelevant). While written as persuasive papers trying to convince the voting populace of New York to ratify, and therefore not strictly objective academic papers, the authors make an enormous to effort to address all popular objections to the various provisions of the Constitution. They address every controversial, and many uncontroversial, aspects of the Constitution and persuasively argue for ratification.

The principles they argue for are commonly accepted today, and seem simplistic only because we've accepted the truth of the benefits of centralized federal government, separation of powers, and checks and balances, and the danger of majoritarian rule and of parties. The papers do a great job of reminding the reader the origins of these principles and why they are necessary to a successful republic. However, because of common knowledge of these principles and arguments, the value of the papers really comes from getting into the minds of Hamilton and Madison. Reading these papers gives the reader some insight into how these figures would deal with other issues.

Hamilton, although writing substantially more than Madison, seems to me to write more persuasively but with less depth. I found that the most impactful papers, those that influenced/educated me the most on political philosophy/governance, were papers written by Madison. Especially Federalist 51. My favorite Hamilton papers were those on the judiciary, at the very end of the papers (Papers 78-onward).

[Joe Pitkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading these fabulous essays was a bit of a slog, owing to the authors’ 18th century style. They were also at times hilarious: I wish I had counted the number of times Hamilton accuses the opponents of the constitution of wantonness, calumny, affectation, or speciousness (in the end he half-apologizes for his “intemperances of expression”). More importantly, though, I was struck by the genius of how the Constitution was framed, how an entire government could be brought about with so few moving parts in it.

Of the three authors, Madison was my favorite: a gentle writer, brilliant and deeply read, but also horribly compromised by his own slaveowning. Here (and elsewhere) we learn about Madison’s wish that slavery be abolished as inimical to a republican form of government; yet, like Jefferson and almost all the other Southern founders, he did not free his own slaves in his lifetime or in his will. His Federalist 54, where he tries to explain the Three-Fifths Compromise, is one of the most fascinating and troubling things I’ve read from any of the founders.

[Larry Koester]

Interesting but difficult to read. Make, good points in regard to ratification of the constitution but not so useful for today's issues.