ASU acquires first edition of ‘The Federalist’
“Hamilton” fever isn’t limited to hard-core Broadway buffs.
It’s also heating up at Arizona State University’s new School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, which has acquired a first edition of “The Federalist” — a collection of essays co-authored by Alexander Hamilton — which it plans to display at ASU Gammage during the Tempe run of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hiphop musical about America’s founding fathers.
The national tour opens here on Jan. 30, and ASU “debuted” its copy of “The Federalist” on Wednesday, at an event titled “Burr, Hamilton and the Drama of America’s Founding.”
Also known as “The Federalist Papers,” the essays were originally published anonymously in newspapers in 1787 and 1788 to argue for ratification of the U.S. Constitution. James Madison and John Jay wrote many of them, but it is believed that Hamilton wrote 51 out of 85.
Collected in book form, the first edition was a limited run of just 500 copies.
“It’s something like a paperback of the day,” said Paul Carrese, founding director of the leadership school.
ASU tapped a private bookseller in Philadelphia to track down a copy, and the acquisition is one of several the school plans to make using a special appropriation from the Arizona Legislature. Also on the shopping list is Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” George Washington’s farewell address and an autographed volume by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In all, the school expects to spend about $500,000.
Launched this year, the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership combines the missions of two existing programs, the Center for Political Thought and Leadership and the Center for the Study of Economic Liberty. The centers have generated some controversy: Founded with seed money from the conservative Charles Koch Foundation, they have been criticized on the left as political activism disguised as academic inquiry.
But Carrese said the school encourages dialogue across the political spectrum. A forum this month featured former senators Jon Kyle, R-Arizona, and Tom Daschle, DSouth Dakota, talking about the need for civil discourse and bipartisanship.
Wednesday’s event, moderated by Carrese, also spotlighted divergent views. It featured a Hamilton expert from ASU’s leadership school, Peter McNamara, and Louisiana State University historian Nancy Isenberg, author of a well-received biography of Aaron Burr titled “Fallen Founder.”
McNamara said that as history, the musical has some omissions and distortions, particularly the foppish portrayal of Thomas Jefferson.
“But there are other things it gets right,” he said. “It gets right the relawas tionship between Hamilton and Washington, the mentor relationship. The American founding, the revolution, it was an exciting time. It was young people trying to make a name for themselves. There was romance. There was violence, of course, but it was a great drama, and I guess one of the accomplishments of the musical is just to convey a sense that this an exciting time.”