The Federalist Papers

By: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

Narrated by: Michael Edwards

Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

The US Constitution was approved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. It was to become law only if it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. New York was a key state, but it contained strong forces opposing the Constitution. A series of eighty-five letters appeared in New York City newspapers between October 1787 and August 1788 urging support for the Constitution. These letters remain the first and most authoritative commentary on the American concept of federal government.

Later known as The Federalist Papers, they were published under the pseudonym ‘Publius,’ although written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

Public Domain (P)1989 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“The Federalist Papers stand as key documents in the founding of the United States.” (Amazon.com, Editorial Review)

Buy it when it goes on 2 for 1 sale

If your interested in this one, get this one when Audible has their two for one sale. It's definitely worth a half a credit for its line by line dissection of the American Constitution, good Age of Enlightenment arguments, and this makes for a much better listen than a read since there is a lot of redundancy between some of the essays and easier to tune out and focus on my bicycle riding during the redundant parts. It's hard not to like a book in which the authors assume the reader knows their Greek, Roman and 17th century European history inside and out.

The writing from 1788 sounds as if could have been written today with surprisingly few archaic words or stilted phrasing. Good argumentation never goes out of style.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Great text, flawed recording

The text is well worth listening to to understand what the issues were regarding adoption of the US Constitution and as a guide to what the founding fathers were wrestling with. The biggest surprise to me was that we're still wrestling with many of the same issues today. There are several places in the text where 10 or 20 seconds of text are repeated - editing errors that detract slightly, and the narration is a bit dry, but this is still a worthwhile listen.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A Must Read to Understand the US Constitution

The Federalist Papers explain at length what the US Constitution tersely states. Even though the Federalist papers have no status as law, and we as readers may not find some of their arguments persuasive, they give us a window into the political and pragmatic considerations that went into the framing of the US Constitution.

The reading style is clear, and conducive to listening with attention.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great book

A perfect snap shot of the contrasting mindsets of Madison and Hamilton making the case for federalism.

Well written. More commercial and secular than I expected.

On a technical note, this audio version is poor. There was about 20 instances where the reader read the same sentence twice.

As to the substance, it was shockingly good. The legal analysis was persuasive. The founders were very clearheaded about future leaders need to bend the language of the Constitution to address some crisis, and they drafted the language anticipating the most tempting misconstructions. The geopolitical analysis was also impressive.

I was expecting a lot more contentless rhetoric and appeals to divine authority. The document was mostly secular. I was also surprised by the priority placed on commercial interests in the early papers.

I admit it got boring. And Hamilton got a little testy toward the end. But I hope reading good legal writing improves my writing. This was worth the investment of time.

Edit, please.

Powerful document from brilliant founders. Many points of repetition in the recording. Please fix for future listeners.

Good information, poor quality read...

The information contained is obvious. The reading is abysmal. At times, it sounds like the person reading is speaking through a thick cloth and is at all times the most boring narrator I've ever heard.

Stupid computer recording

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Have a human read it and not a nasty computer

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Federalist Papers?

Being offended that I was duped into buying a computer recording and not making it past page one.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

It is a stupid computer recording

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No, I can't even get past the first page because of the nasty computer recording

Any additional comments?

If you are going to sell an audiobook, then have a human read it. What a nasty thing to do.

Intelligently Read

I enjoyed narrator's straight and intelligent reading of this important work. I listened to the samples of all the readings of the Federalist Papers and selected this one because I found the narrator's style focused my mind on the meaning of the words. I was not disappointed.

What to say

How to equate the Federalist paper's to today, is important, and the only reason I'm slogging through an extremely boring rendition by the narrator.