Friend,

For more than two centuries, Americans have wrestled with the same fundamental question:

Where should government power reside?

With the states? With Washington? Or somewhere in between?

The Founders themselves never fully settled the question. And throughout American history, the balance between state and federal authority has continued to shift, collide, and spark debate.

In this new offer from the Hoover Institution, The Phases and Faces of Federalism, Hoover senior fellow emeritus and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David M. Kennedy examines the history of this uniquely American system and why the debate over federalism has proven so enduring.

From Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison to the Civil War, the New Deal, and the modern era, Kennedy traces the competing ideas that have shaped the relationship between Washington and the states.

His conclusion challenges the conventional story that American history has simply been a steady march toward greater federal power.

Instead, federalism has remained dynamic, contested, and deeply intertwined with some of the most consequential debates in American life.

Download your complimentary copy of The Phases and Faces of Federalism today.

Hoover scholars study the ideas and institutions that have shaped America and examine how they can help us confront the challenges of today.

As Hoover's fiscal year-end approaches, your support is especially important. The gifts we receive now help determine the research, scholarship, and ideas we can advance in the year ahead.

Thank you,

The Hoover Institution