Fresh reconstruction of the core Federalist arguments

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	• Libertys Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote The Federalist, Defined the Constitution, and Made ... Michael Meyerson Basic Books, 2008 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Good Introduction to The Federalist Papers

During the summer of 1787, Alexander Hamilton began a series of essays designed to convince reluctant voters in New York to ratify the newly-proposed United States Constitution. He enlisted the aid of John Jay, who soon became ill and made limited contributions to the series. In the autumn of 1787, Hamilton turned to his old friend, James Madison of Virginia, who was serving in Congress in New York City at the time. Madison agreed to collaborate on the project. The result was the collection of essays known as The Federalist Papers. Although conceived with a specific temporal goal in mind -- the ratification of the Constitution -- The Federalist Papers has become, together with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself, a revered statement of the American political experiement. The work remains studied for its defense and explanation of American constitutionalism and for its insights into government and human nature. It has deservedly become a timeless classic.

In "Liberty's Blueprint" (2008), Michael Meyerson gives a readable overview of The Federalist Papers, including its authors, creation, and content. Myerson is a Professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law who uses The Federalist Papers to teach courses in Constitutional Law. His students are fortunate to have him as a guide.

"Liberty's Blueprint" is intended for the lay reader. The sections of the book in which Myerson discusses The Federalist Papers and its use or misuse in current judicial decisionmaking seem to me to a sidetrack to the main purpose of the study. In his Preface, Myerson explains that he had several goals in writing the book. The first goal was to present the most important teachings of The Federalist Papers to a modern audience and to show how "wise and educated men" were able to engage in "rational political debate" in supporting or in criticizing the proposed Federal constitution. There is a deep sense in Myerson's book of the importance of both wisdom and rationality in conducting political affairs.

A second goal of Myerson's study was to use The Federalist Papers to show how and when the views of the Framers should be used in constitutional interpretation. He engages in discussions of "originalist" and "non-originalist" theories of Constitutional interpretation to arrive at a "partial originalist" position in which the Constitution might be interpreted in an originalist manner with The Federalist Papers as a guide while the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment might require a different manner of interpretation. His treatment of interpretive theory is somewhat out of place in this book and takes away from his study of The Federalist Papers itself.

Myerson's third goal in his book was to "explore the lives of the authors of The Federalist and shed light on the unusual personal bond between Madison and Hamilton." Myerson here succeeds beautifully. The first half of his book is a twin biography of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison and how they came to cooperate in producing their masterwork of political thought. The two Founders were much unlike. Hamilton was born out of wedlock in the Carribean and rose through his own efforts to become the confidant of George Washington and a power of the commercial interests of the new Nation. He was also a notorious womanizer. James Madison was quiet and diminutive but to the manor born as part of the Virginia aristocracy. Madison was scholarly and intellectual but also a shrewd partisan politician. The two men had become friends well before the Constitutional Convention. They both were somewhat disappointed with the Constitution that resulted but put aside their disagreements with the final product to work agressively for its ratification. Following the ratification of the Constitution and under the administration of President Washington, Hamilton and Madison's personal friendship disintegrated as the two became bitter political enemies. Hamilton's Federalism and Madison's Republicanism became prototypes of political divisions that continue in the United States. Myerson's story of Hamilton, Madison, and The Federalist Papers makes compelling reading.

The final goal of Myerson's study is to show that the ultimate falling-out of Hamilton and Madison teaches that "it is folly to ignore the wisdom of those with whom one disagrees." Hamilton and Madison each have much to teach. Unlike Hamilton and Madison, contemporary Americans would do well to learn from those with whom they disagree and to work together. Hamilton and Madison did so in The Federalist Papers with results that transcend the enmity that later developed between them.

Besides the story of Hamilton and Madison, Myerson succeeds well when he gives a short, close reading of Madison's Federalist # 10, which has become the most famous essay in the collection. He also offers an excellent concluding chapter on The Federalist Papers and its views on human nature. The authors recognized the frailties of human beings and the passions, emotions, and tendencies towards self-centeredness to which they were subject. They tried to channel these frailties in creating a workable form of government. But they also recognized the possiblity of education, virtue and disinterestedness in human endeavor. These qualities too they tried to utilize in both creating and explaining the American experiment in government.

Readers who are new to The Federalist Papers will find Myerson's book an excellent introduction. A good step after reading this book would be to turn to some of the excellent Amazon reader reviews of The Federalist Papers. Then the reader may be inspired to explore this work of American political thought for him or herself.

Robin Friedman

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Fresh reconstruction of the core Federalist arguments

Michael Meyerson is Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore, and teaches the Federalist Papers as part of his Constitutional Law class. He has put his academic training to excellent use.

Some legal scholars focus on minutia. Fortunately for us, Professor Meyerson is a skilled popular writer, with a true gift for synthesizing and explaining first principles. Using the best of modern scholarship, he provides us with a clear and fresh overview of the main arguments in the Federalist Papers.

Especially helpful is Professor Meyerson's frequent reference to the Anti-Federalist writings. Ignoring them is like hearing only one side of a phone conversation. By reconstructing both sides of the debate, Meyerson creates a dynamic work that transports us back to that turbulent time, when the public's approval of the new Constitution was in the balance.

I was fascinated by Professor Meyerson's clear explanation of the checks and balances in the Constitution, designed to avoid concentrations of power, which are the principal risk with a strong government, due to the defects in human nature.

Perhaps the main weakness in the book is its effort to comment on current political debates. Here, if I'm not mistaken, Professor Meyerson seems a bit too eager to criticize various Republican and conservative ideas. Perhaps he thinks that Democracts have ceded the Federalist Papers to the Republicans in recent years, and he is seeking to redress the balance. In my view, this weakens the work by interjecting a partisan perspective in an otherwise excellent and balanced historical analysis.

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Wonderful story

This book gives the wide-ranging back-story of the creation of The Federalist Papers. Meyerson provides a well sourced view of the process behind the fight for ratification of the Constitution. The book is not too dry, with plenty of anecdotes relative to the relationship between Madison and Hamilton. A good all-around read.

Excellent Blend of History And Legal Analysis

In a nice blend of history, biography, and legal analysis, law professor Meyerson examines the dynamic, though short-lived, friendship and literary collaboration between two of the Constitutional Convention's greatest minds. The Federalist is considered America's greatest work of political philosophy, although it was a polemical work that presented only one side in New York's intense ratification debate of 1788 ("Brutus" was the brilliant but now-forgotten champion of the anti-Federalists). Madison, who later became principal author of the Bill of Rights, ironically thought the first Amendments of little importance, but essential for placating the anti-Federalists; one of the most frequent complaints of the Constitution's opponents was that the charter had no bill of rights. While making the case that the Federalist Papers are important as a guide to the Constitution, Meyerson shows that they are not holy writ, not an infallible guide to the intent of the Founders, and at times not even internally consistent. Still, they are the best record we have of what the Founders may have meant by the sometimes elusive language of the nation's charter. On balance, Meyerson has produced a thoughtful and absorbing guide to the Papers and the great thinkers and turbulent times that produced them.

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reviews: page 1, 2

Aside from the Constitution itself, there is no more important document in American politics and law than The Federalist-the series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to explain the proposed Constitution to the American people and persuade them to ratify it. Today, amid angry debate over what the Constitution means and what the framers? ?original intent? was, The Federalist is more important than ever, offering the best insight into how the framers thought about the most troubling issues of American government and how the various clauses of the Constitution were meant to be understood. Michael Meyerson?s Liberty?s Blueprint provides a fascinating window into the fleeting, and ultimately doomed, friendship between Hamilton and Madison, as well as a much-needed introduction to understanding how the lessons of The Federalist are relevant for resolving contemporary constitutional issues from medical marijuana to the war on terrorism. This book shows that, when properly read, The Federalist is not a ?conservative? manifesto but a document that rightfully belongs to all Americans across the political spectrum.

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