The ideas that formed the Constitution: Aristotle
Unlike Socrates, Xenophon, and Plato—the subjects of the third and fourth installments in this series—Aristotle wasn’t an Athenian. (For the first and second installments, see here and here.) Aristotle did, however, win fame in Athens. He was bornin Macedonia in 384...
The ideas that formed the Constitution, the pioneers: Socrates, Xenophon, Plato
This is the fourth in a series of essays on the ideas behind the Constitution. You can find the first two essays here, here, and here As explained in the second installment, 18th-century schoolboys were not expected to be as proficient in Greek as in Latin. However,...
Thomas Paine: Fear, Government Power and Standing Armies
From the earliest days of the republic, politicians have used fear to expand government power. This was the strategy the Federalist Party used to get a standing army. Thomas Paine called them out on it. The founding generation was extremely wary of standing armies....