The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Read by Monroe Clark McBride.
The Federalist Papers were first published in 1787 in the New York press under the signature of "Publius", a psuedonym used by the three authors: John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Jay was responsible for only a few of the 85 articles. The essays appeared in bookform in 1788 and are generally considered to be one of the most important contributions to political thought made in America. The papers were meant to be influential in the campaign for the adoption of the Constitution by New York State. The authors discussed many general problems of politics in addition to the issues of the constitution.
Should Be Taught in Every American Public School by Law (and I'm a liberal)
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.
The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Read by Monroe Clark McBride.
