The Federalist Papers are a collection of writing by Madison, Hamilton and Jay, the architects of the constitution of the US, written analysing the reasons for its formation and content. This book is a must for anyone living within the US and living under the consititution. I myself don't live in the US and still find the philisophical and political concepts raised intriguing and intelligent. Anyone with an interest in the rule of the government, or in the evolution of a federal Europe, really ought to read this. The content in its self can be hard to follow, being a collection of articles to a newspaper, rather than a work intended to be read in continuous form. The concepts are also complicated and require some political knowledge before reading, reading it is occasionally hard work, but definitely worth the effort.