Carey, George Wescott 1933-

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CAREY, George Wescott 1933-

PERSONAL: Born November 26, 1933, in Chicago, IL; married Claire Lanur; children: Michelle. Education: Northwestern University, B.A.; University of Illinois, M.A.; Indiana University, Ph.D., 1961.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Government, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 20057. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Georgetown University, Washington, DC, professor of government. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps, 1955-57.

WRITINGS:

(Selector, with Charles S. Hyneman) A Second Federalist: Congress Creates a Government (selections from the Annals of Congress), University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 1967.

(With Willmoore Kendall) The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1970, published with new preface, Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), 1995.

(Editor, with George J. Graham, Jr.) The Post-Behavioral Era: Perspectives on Political Science, David McKay (New York, NY), 1972.

(Editor, with James V. Schall) Essays on Christianity and Political Philosophy, University Press of America (Bryn Mawr, PA), 1984.

(Editor) Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1984, revised and enlarged edition, ISI Press (Wilmington, DE), 1998.

(Editor) Order, Freedom, and the Polity: Critical Essays on the Open Society, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1986.

In Defense of the Constitution, James River Press (Cumberland, VA), 1989, revised and enlarged edition, Liberty Press (Indianapolis, IN), 1995.

The Federalist: Design for a Constitutional Republic, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1989.

(Editor, with James McClellan) The Federalist, Kendall/Hunt Publishing (Dubuque, IA), 1990.

(Editor, with Bruce Frohnen) Community and Tradition: Conservative Perspectives on the American Experience, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 1998.

(Editor and author of introduction) The Political Writings of John Adams, Regnery Publishing, (Lanham, MD), 2000.

(Coeditor, coauthor of introduction, and contributor of reader's guide and constitutional cross reference and glossary) Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist: A Collection, Liberty Fund, (Indianapolis, IN), 2001.

A Student's Guide to American Political Thought, ISI Books (Wilmington, DE), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Federalism: Infinite Variety in Theory and Practice, edited by Valerie Earle, F. E. Peacock (Itasca, IL), 1968. Editor of Political Science Reviewer, 1973—.

SIDELIGHTS: Political scientist George Wescott Carey has penned or edited several books on the U.S. political system. Most of them examine this system from a conservative or libertarian viewpoint, and concern themselves with attempting to explain the intent of the founding fathers of the United States.

In The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition Carey and coauthor Willmoore Kendall write that the political tradition accepted as true by many in the legal, political, and academic fields is actually a recent contrivance that strays from the more narrow intent to preserve the right of the people to govern themselves focused on by the authors of the U.S. Constitution. The more modern emphasis on complete equality and complete individual freedom, according to the authors, stems from the time of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and the famed Gettysburg Address made during the U.S. Civil War. Documents that Carey and Kendall muster in support of their argument include not only the Constitution itself but the Mayflower Compact and the Federalist Papers.

Essays on Christianity and Political Philosophy is the published result of a conference on the titled subject at Georgetown University. Since Georgetown is a Roman Catholic institution, it is not unexpected that, according to Robert A. Heineman in Perspective, the essayists "are united here in their beliefs that students of political thought should give more attention to the influence of the Catholic Church on the development of the Western political tradition and that the Christian perspective continues to provide a framework for political thought and debate." Coupling his Modern Age review of the book with a review of John H. Howard's Belief, Faith, and Reason, critic Rene Williamson noted that "practically all of our contributors believe in natural law." Heineman described the volume as "cogent" and "coherent."

In The Federalist: Design for a Constitutional Republic, Carey discusses the aims of The Federalist Papers, penned pseudonymously by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay for consideration by the citizens of the then-colony of New York in hopes that it would ratify the newly written U.S. Constitution. Prior interpretation of The Federalist Papers generally viewed the publication in the same light that many historians view the Federalist Party, of which Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were considered influential members. The volume and its authors have long had the reputation of being elitist, and of advocating federal power as a means to preserve the power and privilege of upper- and middle-class property owners. Carey states instead that the thrust of the work is actually quite populist, and that "Publius" advocates federal powers—and the checks of the executive and judicial branches on the legislative—in order to protect individuals from the tyranny of particularly powerful groups. Paul Gottfried, critiquing The Federalist: Design for a Constitutional Republic in the National Review, observed: "I am genuinely impressed by the thoroughness of Mr. Carey's unbiased scholarship," while L. Weinstein in Choice concluded that the volume "serves beginners as a useful introduction . . . while for advanced students and informed readers it is a stimulus to reflection and reconsideration."