[PW] Federalist papers adapted for children?

[Jerry_Stephens at ca10.uscourts.gov]

I have found the suggestions about a "new" Federalist Papers publication 
to be of real interest. I want to add a comment. 

First of all, the suggestion to turn to Mary Webster's editorial 
"translation" of the Federalist Papers is not a bad one. I have read her 
work and probably find most of it acceptable. But I also believe there is 
an ideological edge to some of her writing. And it's that sense that leads 
me to suggest that readers would approach her translation with some 
caution.

I don't want to overstate that at all. That's a caution all readers should 
keep in mind when reading political works. Even when reading the original 
Federalist Papers.

Let me suggest a work that for some readers might be a useful complement 
both to the original Federalist Papers and to any new language version of 
this American classic. But this is a distinctly different work than a 
simple reworking of the original language.

In 1997, the Twentieth Century Fund published the New Federalist Papers. 
This was a work by three eminent scholars to "refram[e] the arguments for 
the basic structure of the American government.

The three scholars: Alan Brinkley (professor of history at Columbia); 
Nelson W. Polsby (then professor of political science at U 
California-Berkeley); and Kathleen M. Sullivan (professor of law at 
Stanford). The three authors state their purpose in the brief 
introduction:

        Like the original federalists, we are defenders of a strong and 
vigorous national government, although we are skeptical 
        of many aspects of politics and government in their present form. 
Like the federalists, we see substantial danger in the
        current effort to diminish and relocate federal power, although we 
recognize the importance of state and local governments,
        of market forces, and of the many other intermediate institutions 
on which a healthy society depends.

This collection of essays may not have been intentionally aimed at a 10th 
grade reading audience. But the language is not much beyond the reading 
level ot the interested high school student and general reader.

I would certainly recommend this book to all on this list for those 
reasons. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about 
my suggestion.

Jerry E. Stephens
U.S.Court of Appeals
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

email:           jerry_stephens at ca10.uscourts.gov
personal:     jstephens6 at cox.net
voice:           (405) 609-5460
fax:                (405) 609-5461
cell:               (405) 834-1408

"A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000 word document and calls it a 
brief."
--Franz Kafka

"I may be wrong, but I'm never in doubt."
--Marshall McLuhan





"Mark Wilson" <mwilson at cumberland.lib.nc.us> 
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07/09/2007 08:43 AM
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[PW] Federalist papers adapted for children?






I have a customer who's thinking of writing an adaptation of The 
Federalist, for children.  She wanted to see if such a thing already 
existed before she made this attempt.  I've looked in our own catalog of 
course, also WorldCat.  I've tried numerous combinations of title kw 
"federalist" and a mixture of as many terms as I could think of that point 
to not-the-real-McCoy.  I.e., simplified, abridged, adapted.
 
I find plenty of things of this nature for the Declaration of Independence 
& the Constitution, but nothing for the Federalist Papers, a.k.a. "The 
Federalist."  Am I missing anything?  Or would this be, as I suspect, not 
readily adaptable for children? 
 
Mark M. Wilson
Reference & Information Services Mgr.
North Regional Library
CCPL&IC
Fayetteville, NC 28311-1961
mwilson at cumberland.lib.nc.us
(910) 822-1998 x230
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