STORING, HERBERT J. (1928–1977)

Herbert Storing established the American Founding as a special field of study, both in his teaching at the University of Chicago and in his scholarship. Storing's monumental work, The Complete Anti-Federalist, contains introductions to and annotated, accurate texts of all substantial anti-federalist writings, along with the essay, "What the Anti-Federalists were For." This material plus his essay on "The 'Other' Federalist Papers," facilitates a full study of the dialogue over ratification of the constitution in 1787–1788. It also explains why the Constitution's opponents "must be seen as playing an indispensable, if subordinate, part in the founding process." Storing argued that the Anti-Federalists lost the debate, ultimately, because they could not reconcile the contradiction of supporting union while opposing adequate powers for the federal government, but he regarded as well taken their criticism of the Constitution as not providing for, and even undermining, republican virtue.

Elsewhere, in essays on slavery, civil disobedience, the political thought of black Americans, and statesmanship, and in congressional testimony concerning the electoral college, Storing demonstrated the continuing relevance of the founding dialogue for American politics.

Murray Day
(1986)

Bibliography

Storing, Herbert J. 1976 "The 'Other' Federalist Papers." Political Science Reviewer 6:215–247.

——1981 The Complete Anti-Federalist. 7 Vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Volume 1 was also published separately under the title, What the Anti-Federalists were For.)