The Federalist Papers Project

Looking at the thread titles on our P&CE front page, I'm convinced that we regulars need something worthwhile to do, so we don't really have to talk about Bristol Palin's memoir, and the guy who got accidentally killed by a rooster.

May I make a modest proposal?

We want to encourage people to read, to learn, to share knowledge and ideas. We want to encourage the Commons to flourish. So we’re going to produce occasional e-books, in HTML, epub and .pdf.

We’ll host and distribute them for free, via absoluteclasses.com.

We propose to use the best public domain editions we can find, with editing as necessary.

We will add an original Introduction essay, notes, and an annotated bibliography.

Some editions will include newly written essays offering background, critical interpretations and commentary.

We will request one-time e-rights, with attribution, with share-and-share alike creative commons licensing.

I challenge the Politics regulars begin this project with a new edition of The Federalist Papers (Another link to the primary texts, here)

The Federalist Papers were a series of eighty-five essays urging the citizens of New York to ratify the new United States Constitution. Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, the essays originally appeared anonymously in New York newspapers in 1787 and 1788 under the pen name "Publius." A bound edition of the essays was first published in 1788, but it was not until the 1818 edition published by the printer Jacob Gideon that the authors of each essay were identified by name. The Federalist Papers are considered one of the most important sources for interpreting and understanding the original intent of the Constitution.

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Here's my challenge: Write an thoughtful, passionate, articulate essay about one of the original Federalist Paper essays, for inclusion as commentary in the AW Politics Forum Federalist Papers e-book project.

Who's in?

Don said:

Waaaah! I'd rather do these first.

[/whine]

Actually, it sounds like an interesting idea. And there are a number of them I like, too.

*goes off to wander the list*

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So write about those, Don, and we'll include them with your essay. I'll start sourcing primary texts.

Rob, absolutely. That sounds like a really interesting take, in fact.

Go ahead and subscribe to this one, at least for now, Thoth - I may be building us a sub-subforum workroom, if we can get off the ground.