"Contrary to most academic commentary on The Federalist, this book contends that the most significant teachings of the work did not have to do with the institutions of government so much as with the non-institutional features of American constitutionalism, specifically its advocacy for greater union, the development of an unparalleled culture of enterprise, and provision for war. Key to understanding why these features were so critical to The Federalist is the work's rejection of classical liberalism's orthodoxy that commercial republics were moderate or pacific in nature rather than spirited, enterprising, and warlike. Using the ancient historian Thucydides account of the daring, innovation, and restlessness of ancient commercial Athens as an interpretive guide for the commercial republican theory that The Federalist embraces, this book provides a sweeping reinterpretation of American constitutionalism. At the heart of The Federalist's teaching, Peacock contends, is the intention to create an innovative and spirited culture of enterprise that will not only inform America's civil character post-1787 but its military character as well. No scholarship has considered the significance of Thucydides to the The Federalist. This book does in a comprehensive reconstruction of the work that concludes that The Federalist anticipates as well as any text on American constitutionalism what many consider to be the most definitive features of American character today: its spirit of enterprise and its qualified willingness to engage in war for both reasons of national interest and republican principle" --.

• Cover
• Vindicatingthe Commercial Republic
• Vindicating the Commercial Republic: The Federalist on Union,Enterprise, and War
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Need to Vindicate the American
• Neglect of The Federalist’s Noninstitutional Teaching
  • The Federalist’s Heterodoxy: Commercial Republics are Spirited and Warlike
    • Thucydides and The Federalist
    • A New Understanding of American Constitutionalism
    • Notes
  • Chapter 1
  • The Foundations in Principle of The Federalist’s Constitutionalism
    • Natural Rights, Locke, and the Constitution as a Moral Necessity
    • The Duty to Abandon the Articles of Confederation
    • Constitutional Reasoning and Public Opinion
    • Commerce and the Spirit of the Laws
    • Notes
  • Chapter 2
  • Natural Rights and a New Commercial Republican Theory
    • Natural Rights and American Culture
    • National Greatness and the Higher Toning of American Character
    • Commercial Reform as Moral Reform
    • Commercial Republicanism and the Dynamism of American Enterprise
    • Notes
  • Chapter 3
  • The Spirited Nature of Commercial Republics
    • Commerce, Enterprise, and American Greatness
    • Commerce, Union, and American Foreign Policy
    • Commerce, War, and the New Republicanism
    • Notes
  • Chapter 4
  • Taming the Commercial Republic
    • The Radical Republican Revisionism of Federalists 6–8
    • “Industrious Citizens” Versus “A Nation of Soldiers”
    • Militias, Standing Armies, and The Federalist’s Grand Strategy
    • The Turn in The Federalist’s Commercial Republican Theory
    • Notes
  • Chapter 5
  • Thucydides and The Federalist
    • Thucydides’ History and The Federalist
    • Thucydides’ Four Lessons for The Federalist
    • Ancient and Modern Liberalism
    • Notes
  • Chapter 6
  • The Virtue of Enterprise
    • Classical Virtue Eclipsed, the Virtue of Enterprise Embraced
    • The Meaning of Federalist 10
    • Revisiting the Lessons from Thucydides
    • Notes
  • Chapter 7
  • Federalists 11–14 and the Spirit of Enterprise
    • America’s Commercial Dynamism and The Federalist’s Nascent Foreign Policy
    • Federalists 11 and 12 on the Thucydidean Trinity
    • Integrating Culture and Moderating Militancy
    • Thucydides’ Third Lesson and the Modern Market
    • Notes
  • Chapter 8
  • Enterprise and the High Politics of American Constitutionalism
    • Limited Government and the High Objects of American Constitutionalism
    • The Ancient Models, War, and Weak Federations
    • Notes
  • Chapter 9
  • War and the Impossibility of an Insularity Doctrine
    • Unlimited Power for Limited Objects
    • Why a Standing Army Will Not Threaten the United States
    • National Security as a Moral Imperative
    • A National Free Market as a Moral and Military Imperative
    • A New American Nationalism
    • Notes
  • Chapter 10
  • Constitutional Powers and The Federalist’s High-Toned Politics
    • Representation and the Exercise of Constitutional Powers
    • Constitutional Powers and the Life of the Mind
    • The Federalist and Locke’s Doctrine of Property
    • Notes
    • Commercial Dynamism and the Impossibility of An Insularity Doctrine
    • The Spirit of Enterprise and the American Way of War
    • The Federalist’s Commercial Republican Theory and What Threatens It Today
    • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
  • About the Author