Source: Law & Liberty
by Matthew J Franck
“The guilty secret among students of American politics is that many of them — perhaps most — have not read The Federalist in its entirety. They may have been introduced to ‘Publius,’ the nom de plume of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, early in their studies, as undergraduates or even in high school. But the demands on the time and attention of both teachers and students to ‘cover’ many things typically meant that only the ‘greatest hits’ of the eighty-five essays were assigned and discussed. Sometimes the authors of introductory textbooks on American government will include pivotal essays such as No. 10 and No. 51 in an appendix, and editors of anthologies of primary sources may include as many as eight or ten numbers of The Federalist. The work is sampled more often than read as a coherent unity.” (08/28/25)