Francis X. Hennessy

Francis X. Hennessy is known from the historical record primarily as the author of Citizen or Subject?, first published in New York by E. P. Dutton and Company in 1923. The book examines the meaning of citizenship in the United States and argues that Americans need a clearer understanding of their rights, responsibilities, and relationship to government.

Modern readers most often encounter Hennessy through public-domain editions and digitized library copies. Project Gutenberg lists him as the author of Citizen or Subject? and, at least from the sources available here, that appears to be the only work widely indexed under his name.

Very little biographical information about his life was confirmed in the sources I found. Because of that, the clearest picture of Hennessy comes through his writing itself: a serious, argumentative work of political and constitutional thought rooted in early 20th-century debates about American government.