Reform Tradition, Proposals, and Prospects

Alexander Hamilton conceived of the Federalist Papers, enlisted the aid of esteemed co-authors, wrote the majority of the text, and oversaw its printing. At the outset he could not have imagined that he would write most of the approximately 175,000 words (two volumes, six hundred pages) in just seven months, all the while running his law practice. As Ron Chernow (2005, 249) notes, “it was a period of madcap activity.” At one point, Hamilton completed twenty-one essays in two months, at another, five in a single week (Chernow 2005, 250).