To Make a Nation

Lyndon Johnson heralded a "new federalism", as did Ronald Reagan. It was left to the public to puzzle out what such a proclamation, coming from both ends of the political spectrum, could possibly mean. Of one thing we can be certain, theories of federalism, whatever form they take, are still shaping America. The origin of these theories - what they meant to history and how they apply today - are discussed in this book. The great English republicans of the 17th century appear in this story, along with their American descendants, who took the European idea of a federal republic and recast it as new and unique. Samuel Beer's knowledge of European political thought, displayed especially in discussions of Thomas Aquinas and James Harrington, allows him to show at every turn the historical precedents and the originality of American federalism in theory and practice. In comparisons with Hume, Burke, Blackstone, and Montesquieu, the familiar figures of Madison and Hamilton emerge with new substance and depth, while some who would seem fully known by now, such as Benjamin Franklin, reveal unsuspected dimensions, and others, such as James Wilson, are lifted from obscurity.
Beer uses this history to highlight the contrast between the nation-centred federalism of the framers of the Constitution and the state-centred federalism of its opponents. His concern is not only with historical origins but, more important, with a conflict of ideas which reaches far into American history and continues to this day. The result is an articulation of the provenance and purpose of the ideas of nationalism and federalism in American political philosophy.