A problem as old as the republic

Master historian H. W. Brands has crafted a lively narrative of our republic’s early years as the Founding Fathers fought over competing visions of what our nation would be.

Parties emerged even before the Constitution was ratified. The Federalists formed around Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and their efforts to make the federal government more robust. Their opponents organized as the Antifederalists, who feared the encroachments on liberty that a strong central government would surely bring. The Antifederalists lost but regrouped under the new Constitution as the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, whose bruising contest against Federalist John Adams marked the climax of this turbulent chapter of American political history.

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"An essential book for understanding the foundation of American partisanship.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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