Reading Material

It may sound either pompous or trite.  But GOTV, in our effort to help our neighbors understand and participate more effectively in our politics, has come up with a brief reading list.

It consists of only two titles, neither recent, but each seminal to our politics and government.  It's our feeling that plowing through these (and it will require effort) will give you a better understanding of how we became the United States.

• Democracy in America , in which Alexis de Tocqueville inspected the democratic revolution, manifesting in America, that he believed had been developing over the previous several hundred years
• The Federalist Papers , in which Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison prescribed a functional foundation for a government de Tocqueville would have appreciated

Pop quiz - chicken or egg.  I.e., which of these studies influenced which?