The Cambridge Companion to the Federalist

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.


About the Author
Rakove, Jack N.: - 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).Sheehan, Colleen A.: - Colleen A. Sheehan is Professor of Politics and Director of the Matthew J. Ryan Center at Villanova University. Her publications include James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government (2009) and The Mind of James Madison: The Legacy of Classical Republicanism (Cambridge, 2015).