The first installment of a two-volume exposition of the political platform of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (see 1878.01 and 1879.04). Kuyper also intended to make reference, if possible, to the changes introduced in the platform of 1916 (see 1916.07). Approximately three weeks after the first volume had been published, Kuyper wrote an asterism in De Standaard (no. 13348, October 16, 1915) noting that many people considered Nadere toelichting too modest a title. Kuyper, however, liked this simple title. When some later pointed out that the title fit the second volume, De toepassing [The practice], but not the first and more substantial volume, De beginselen [The principles], Kuyper gave in and chose the new title Antirevolutionaire staatkunde [Anti-Revolutionary political theory]. A new title page and a partially rewritten preface were delivered together with the tenth and final installment of the first volume in June 1916. This explains why the signature marks throughout the first volume still read toelichting [explanation].

The preface to the first installment was approximately one and a half pages shorter and contains fewer autobiographical notes than the revised version provided after the first volume had been completed. For an introduction to this edition, see the short editorial in De Standaard, no. 13338, October 5, 1915. The work was eventually published in twenty-one installments rather than the fifteen or sixteen originally planned. The print run consisted of 2,300 copies, although 500 additional copies of the first installment were printed.