Written at a time when furious arguments were raging about the best way to govern America, The Federalist Papershad the immediate practical aim of persuading New Yorkers to accept the newly drafted constitution in 1787. In this they were supremely successful, but their influence also transcended contemporary debate to win them a lasting place in discussions of American political theory. Acclaimed by Thomas Jefferson as 'the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written', The Federalist Papers make a powerful case for power-sharing between State and Federal authorities and for a constitution that has endured largely unchanged for more than two hundred years. In his brilliantly detailed introduction, Isaac Kramnick sets the Papers in their historical and political context. This edition also contains the American constitution as an appendix.