James Sterling Young's Washington Community, 1800—1828 created something of a scholarly sensation when it was published in 1966 by Columbia University Press, and justly so.The Washington Community was that rarest of all things in modern academe: a book praised both by the historians for its thoroughness and the political scientists for its analytic insight. The American Historical Review called it "an important, long-overdue corrective to earlier misconceptions about the viability of American governmental processes" during the critical early years of the new nation."So penetrating are his questions and so persuasive his answers concerning the relationships within and between the legislative and executive branches," wrote the Political Science Quarterly, "that their power of illumination is nearly as great for the same relationships today." Subsequent brickbats were inevitable, of course, the major assault coming in a 1975 American Journal of Political Sciencearticle by Allan G.Bogue and Mark Paul Barlaire of the University of Wisconsin. But even this represented an exception that affirmed the general rule. For one thing, it was an article, its length tribute in itself to the lasting formidability of Young's work. For another, the authors' criticisms were limited to one aspect of the book, its downplaying of the importance of political parties in early national government. "We must emphasize," wrote Bogue and Barlaire, "that we do not intend to analyze Young's general approach or major themes."