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

Placeholder author icon
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.

Paw in print

Image
PAW's October 2025 cover, featuring a photo of stuntman Kent De Mond ’07 with his back on fire.
The Latest Issue

September 2025

Stuntman Kent De Mond ’07 is on fire; Endowment tax fallout; Pilot Michael Holl ’03 trains Qataris