Reading the Federalist Papers

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay authored each of these essays as a joint effort over 200 years ago as a justification and argument to the people of the US for the adoption of the new Constitution.

The essays’ age does yield some rather dated language, which makes the content difficult to understand and interpret relative to modern interests. As we listened, Lisa commented about this difficulty, and Grace chimed in as well. As a result, we collectively discussed the challenge and realized what a great opportunity existed to “translate” the colonial 18th-century language into more modern 21st-century vernacular.

An idea was born and we thought we were onto something. Unfortunately, like most things under the sun, we were not the first to have this thought. After a brief search on Amazon, “The Federalist Papers in Modern Language” by Mary E. Webster turned up.

It’s a great book! I highly recommend it. I’ve read the various editions of the Federalist Papers over the years, but I had never thought to look for a modern rendition. It’s pretty neat! The author also includes a very helpful index focused around today’s political issues.

We recently took a family car trip, and during the trip, my daughter pushed her “Federalist Papers” audiobook to the car Bluetooth. We had an enjoyable time listening to the audiobook performer step through each numbered essay.

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