With unmatched clarity, lucidity, and fairness, Banning explains the nature of the first great party conflict of American politics. He builds on and extends his earlier work on Jefferson and Madison and along the way imparts some important lessons on partisanship in politics and in scholarly non-partisanship.

Michael Zuckert, University of Notre Dame

In this brief but insightful book on the rise of the political parties during Washington's first term, Lance Banning shows why he is regarded as one of the premier historians of the early American republic. While doing full justice to the complexity of the issues that divided the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, Banning writes with uncommon clarity and a rare impartiality.

Carl J. Richard, author of The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment