Books by Jason Frank

Jason Frank's Publius and Political Imagination is the first volume of the Modernity and Political Thought series to take as its focus not a single author, but collaboration between political philosophers, in this very special case the collective known by the pseudonym: Publius. Publius, of course, comprised the most influential of the American Founders-from James Madison to Alexander Hamilton to John Jay-particularly as the United States Constitution was being debated among the newly independent states. As the lofty dreams of some were countered by the pragmatic realism of others still, the founding and shaping of our governmental philosophy took root in this imagined Publius, this public mind, and it is where those on any side of a contemporary issue draw their argumentative and philosophical strength.

An argument that the people, the legitimate ground of public authority in the United States, are not a coherent or sanctioned collective; rather, they exist as an effect of successful claims to speak on their behalf.