Explaining America: The Federalist
About this ebook
From 1787 to 1788, Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay rapidly wrote and published a series of eighty-five essays under the pseudonym Publius. First known as the Federalist, and later the Federalist Papers, the influential essays are one of the greatest examples of political journalism in the English language. Together they argued for the ratification of the Constitution.
In Explaining America: The Federalist, author Garry Wills rigorously analyzes the work of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, clarifying it through the context of eighteenth-century America. He also demonstrates the impact David Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment had on the men's effort to create a moral society. The careers of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay may have diverged in later years, but together they showed what is essential to defining American democracy.
"To read the Federalist afresh, as Wills has done, is to have hope renewed." — The New Republic
"Wills's discussion is erudite and closely reasoned." — Business Week
"A virtuoso exercise in scholarship." — The Washington Post Book World
Originally published in 1981.
Introduction added 2001.
Discover more
About the author
GARRY WILLS, a distinguished historian and critic, is the author of numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Saint Augustine, and the best-selling Why I Am a Catholic. A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, he has won many awards, among them two National Book Critics Circle Awards and the 1998 National Medal for the Humanities. He is a history professor emeritus at Northwestern University.
