Power Versus Liberty

By James H. Read

Book Overview

Read explores how four key Founders--James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson--wrestled with the question of whether an increase in the power of government entails a loss of liberty for the people.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813919126
• ISBN13: 9780813919126
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 22 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Postsecondary to Grade 12

Customer Reviews

Precise View of Madison

Recent scholarship has revealed a much more consistent 'Madison' than some historians have granted 'The Father of the Constitution'.Scholars Rosen, Banning, and Rakove have lead the way in this regard. Reads contribution although brief is as Rakove pointed out a deft work.By highlighting the concerns Madison held about the excresent powers of the Continental Congress, amidst the environment where the Congress was frustrated from performing the assigned tasks, revitalizes and reinforces the devotion Madison held for Constituional integrity reconciling the thoughts and actions of Madison in the 1780s, to the 1790s. It is only wished this essay could be expanded, and that the author could apply a more expanded study on Madison's contributions.

User-friendly exploration on the role of/limit to government

Dr. James Read was a recent guest on National Public Radio. His scholarship is evident, but what he has written here is a very "user-friendly" exploration of the early American debate on the role of government, which is as pertinent today as it was in 1776. Dr. James Read has given us a highly readable, as well as well researched, look at a question which all Americans ponder: "Is big government antagonistic to individual rights and liberties?" The discussion is framed in the context of those early American thinkers who initially set up the American system of government with an especial emphasis on Jefferson and Hamilton. This is a very readable book that is written in straightforward prose. It presents a nice, concise history of America's early philosophical public policy issues, its greatest thinkers, and the debate in the 18th century about what form the American government would take. It is fascinating to read about the debates taking place in the hammering out of the United States' Constitution. The book is organized into:Power and Liberty (James Madison);Libertarianism and nationalism (Alexander Hamilton);Popular Sovereighty (James Wilson);Liberty and States Rights (Thomas Jefferson).