The essays gathered here ask what the American experience — more particularly the debates between federalists and anti-federalists — can teach about the costs, limits, and possibilities of building a union, and whether those lessons travel to Europe at all.

In his analysis of Carl Schmitt’s attack on democracy, Christopher Adair-Toteff argues for the contemporary relevance of Hans Kelsen’s robust defense of liberal democracy.

In remembering his dear friend and colleague, Jeffrey Goldfarb highlights the importance of Robin Wagner-Pacifici’s writing on social conflict, collective memory, and social events.

As a writer, Slavenka Drakulić sought to evoke the life of the single individual in a way that made empathy possible, writes her friend Marci Shore.

Eyyup Yilmaz, (Loyola University) discusses the nature of debates surrounding Islam and democracy. Starting from a lecture by Ernst Renan, he shows how both Muslim and non-Muslim actors fall into a modernist trap of thought when discussing Islam and democracy.