First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country

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By Thomas E. Ricks

Published Nov. 7, 2020

First Principles details the classical philosophical learnings of America’s first presidents and how those ideas came to shape both their ideology and the country they helped to found. Among these accounts is the story of James Madison 1771’s politically active life while studying at Princeton.

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PAW's October 2026 cover, featuring a photo of a loaf of challah bread and the headline "The Braids That Bind."
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