Customer Reviews

One United People: The Federalist Papers and the National Idea

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In this book, Millican asserts that Publius's main intent was to create a strong federal government that intertwined Lockean liberalism and nationalism. In regards to the traditional debate in American politics between the Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians, Millican clearly comes down on the side of Hamilton. If one is looking for an analysis of the Federalist Papers as a whole, this book is not for you. Millican uses all 267 pages to assert that champions of states rights have misread the Federalist Papers and the Constitution. This book should be of particular interest to the readers of contemporary political philosophers such as Michael Lind and James Pinkerton. These writers advocate the emergence of a new liberal nationalism rooted in the strength of the federal government. The scope of this book is limited, but Millican succeeds in providing a significant amount of evidence to support his thesis.

If you like to learn and think, this book is worth the read. This book is a very detailed look into the federalist papers. The question is whether the founding fathers intended the national government or the state governments to be stronger. After reading this book, I am fully convinced, that at the very least, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison intended the Untited States Government to be strong and centralized, with the state governments as a safeguard to a tyrant national government, and to be in charge of local issues too numerous for a national government to want to be involved with. I have learned a lot about not only the U.S. Government from this book, but the origin of government, and the interactions between different nations governments.