Although the practice of public administration is very old, the formal study of public administration and the elaboration of theory are very new. As a separate self-conscious of self-aware academic and intellectual thing—a body of knowledge, a field of professional practice, and academic subject, a form of politics, a social construction of reality—public administration is young. When measured from the Federalist, public administration is more than 225 years old, more than 22 decades, more than 7 generations. When measured from the publication of Woodrow Wilson’s Founding essay (1887/1941), public administration is more than 125 years old, more than 12 decades; more than 3 generations. As a separate and self-conscious collection of concepts, ideas, reforms, courses and degrees, and professed answers to public problems, public administration is a young adult.