LaCroix's great achievement is to show that American federalism has an intellectual pedigree: it was not simply an ad hoc institutional arrangement, a bundle of compromises, or a codification of colonial experience in the British Empire. Instead, revolutionaries theorized their way to federalism. This is an important book that will change the way we think about the American founding. -- Peter S. Onuf, University of Virginia Where did American federalism come from? Although federalism's roots in the institutional practices and structures of the early modern British Empire are well known, we have long needed a history of federalism as a legal and intellectual concept. Thanks to Alison LaCroix's splendid book, that wait is over. -- Eliga H. Gould, University of New Hampshire
Alison L. LaCroix is Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School.
The virtue of LaCroix's account is to show not only that federalism
as it developed was more intellectually coherent than a mere bundle
of compromises, but also that its theoretical core had begun to
emerge decades before the delegates travelled to Philadelphia in
May 1787 [for the Constitutional Convention].
*Times Literary Supplement*
As LaCroix shows in this engaging treatise, the who-does-what
questions at the heart of federalism have vexed the nation from the
get-go.
*Weekly Standard*
LaCroix's great achievement is to show that American federalism has
an intellectual pedigree: it was not simply an ad hoc institutional
arrangement, a bundle of compromises, or a codification of colonial
experience in the British Empire. Instead, revolutionaries
theorized their way to federalism. This is an important book that
will change the way we think about the American founding.
*Peter S. Onuf, University of Virginia*
Where did American federalism come from? Although federalism's
roots in the institutional practices and structures of the early
modern British Empire are well known, we have long needed a history
of federalism as a legal and intellectual concept. Thanks to Alison
LaCroix's splendid book, that wait is over.
*Eliga H. Gould, University of New Hampshire*
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