Political Companions to Great American Authors

The books in this series illuminate the complex political thought of the nation’s most celebrated writers from the founding era to the present. The goal of the series is to demonstrate how American political thought is understood and represented by great American writers, but also to describe how our polity’s understanding of fundamental principles such as democracy, equality, freedom, toleration, and fraternity have been influenced by these canonical authors.

The series publishes a broad spectrum of political theorists, philosophers, and literary scholars to examine classic authors and explain their continuing influence on American political, social, intellectual, and cultural life. By eschewing ephemeral trends of literary and cultural theory, this series reappraises American authors and their writings as lasting works of art that continue to inform and guide the American democratic experiment.

Series Editor Patrick J. Deneen is David A. Potenziani Memorial Associate Professor of Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame.