Book Description
A bestselling historian examines the life of a Founding Father.Renowned historian and social commentator Garry Wills takes a fresh look at the life of James Madison, from his rise to prominence in the colonies through his role in the creation of the Articles of Confederation and the first Constitutional Congress. Madison oversaw the first foreign war under the constitution, and was forced to adjust some expectations he had formed while drafting that document. Not temperamentally suited to be a wartime President, Madison nonetheless confronted issues such as public morale, internal security, relations with Congress, and the independence of the military. Wills traces Madison's later life during which, like many recent Presidents, he enjoyed greater popularity than while in office.
Customer Reviews:
Hard to like.......2007-09-30
It was hard for me to like a consummate politician like James Madison, and hard to like the way this book was written, although it was informative.
James Madison was more of a politician than a president according to author Garry Wills. From the accounts of this book, everything he did had political motives. The author, in fact, found very little to admire personally in the man as president except that he navigated with the country through the War of 1812, and the country came out victorious and intact. The book by the way covers the periods before and after his presidency, but concentrates mostly on when he was president.
The book's style was a little too academic, dry, and distilled for me, with information that seems more like data than historical facts; it made you feel like you were back in college preparing to be tested. I prefer the way Joseph Ellis or Stephen Ambrose does early U.S history, giving it more personality and spice with a lot of anecdotes and quotes. I would have liked to have known more about Dolly Madison, for example, and the president's relationship with her. For once, I would have rather had a longer, more leisurely walk through someone's life.
In short, Madison was a mediocre president but a great politician (if such a thing exists)and this account of it was informative but fairly uninspired, like a history text book. Three stars are the very best I could do for it.
Worth the money.......2006-03-28
I've read over 10 of the American President Series bios (and bios on 15 other Presidents) and this was a pleasant surpise. In addition to Madison, Gary Willis offers some great insight to Jefferson, Monroe and the war of 1812 without getting bogged down in an area. I appreciated the chapter subdivisions that allowed me to pick it up and put it down easily. I throughly enjoyed reading this book.
A Cornerstone of America.......2005-09-20
In halls of American history, few people are as overlooked as James Madison. While his presidency was largely forgettable, his influence on the country through his work on the constitution can not be forgotten.
In this concise work by Gary Wills, Madison is portrayed as a slight and fragile man. Yet even in early adulthood, he showed the markings of a leader. Overcoming his quiet nature and small size, he played a key role in writing the Constitution. He championed the cause of separation of church and state. Madison felt that faith must be genuine and can not be forced. A forced faith is dangerous to the future of the religion, potentially causing it to loose its meaning.
Madison's presidency was marred by the War of 1812. This often misunderstood chapter in American history is given an excellent explanation on page 97. Through the course of this war, Madison protected the Constitution as well as ending the reigns of political patronage than caused earlier battles in the war to be failures.
Much like Thomas Jefferson paved the path to the presidency for Madison, Madison also left a legacy of rising stars in the party then known as Republican including James Monroe and Andrew Jackson. Were it not for Jackson's military success, the country stood to loose ground in the War of 1812. Instead, the country ended the war with the same amount of territory as when it began the war.
While this biography is short, I must admit that I learned a great deal from it. I believe this book can hold its ground against any biography of Madison. While not caught up in frivolous details, it tells a great story.
Excellent short biography by one of our more perplexing presidents.......2005-08-27
To his credit, Garry Wills is in this book determined to focus most of his attentions on President James Madison rather than Founder James Madison. The temptation with Madison is always to focus on his profoundly important contributions to the U.S. Constitution instead of his two terms as president. As a constitutionalist, Madison held the distinction of being both the primary framer of the Constitution and actual writer of much of it, and being by far the most important person in the composition of the Bill of Rights. Interestingly, little of this was known about Madison during his own life time. As Wills points out, after Washington and Franklin, Madison was probably the next most important person in the creation of the United States (though I would add Jefferson to the list to create a quartet), but this would not have been obvious to his contemporaries. Even his role as one of the writers of the Federalist Papers was unknown.
Madison as president, however, was a terrible disappointment. While his abilities in framing and creating the constitution incontestably make him one of the half dozen most important figures in U.S. History, he was at best an average president. In fact, his accomplishments as president can only be dealt with negatively. His lone achievements are what he did not do, not what he actually did. As Wills argues at the end, he did not engage in widespread violations of civil rights while waging the War of 1812, as many subsequent presidents would do, both major presidents such as Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt, and lesser presidents such as Richard Nixon, and much, much lesser presidents like George W. Bush. Unlike Lincoln, Madison did not suspend habeas corpus and unlike Wilson did not make criticism of the government a jailable crime. Furthermore, although he signally failed in all of the central aims of his administration both in going to war and in everything else, he proved that a republic grounded in a spirit of a popular democracy could nonetheless wage a war.
The most interesting part of the book came near the end, when in a few brief pages Wills made some powerful and cogent arguments concerning the role that modernism had on the Madison terms of office. There is a fundamental tension in American politics that is expressed in a number of paired yet opposing ideas: freedom versus liberty, a strong federal government versus a weak central government, and "the people" versus states` rights. These inevitably lead to apparent contradictions, such as Jefferson's stated dislike of a strong central government, but his dramatic increase in the power of the executive branch. Likewise, Madison creates a constitution that centers national authority in a strong federal, but then as a member of Congress gradually moves more and more to a states' rights position, before as president dramatically increasing the importance and power of the federal and executive powers. Over and over in American history we see varying attempts to struggle with these issues. Lincoln saw himself as a Jeffersonian, yet believed strongly in a strong federal government and a weak local government. Similar to the arguments of Herbert Croly in THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE, Woodrow Wilson felt that Jeffersonian democracy could only be sustained by a very strong federal that could resist and fight the exploitative tendencies of trusts and corporations, and argued that Jefferson himself would have advocated a strong central government had he foreseen the effects of mass industrialization and the rise of the modern corporation. Madison found himself despite his ideals relying more and more on new elites, an idea that was anathema to Republicans (that is old school Republicans, that actually became the Democratic party under Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren). But Wills notes that these were not the elites that the Federalists envisioned leading the United States. Hamilton, for instance, yearned for an America led by its wealthiest and highest born. Under Madison privilege eventually came to play no role and being well born or of good blood was vastly less important than being effective and efficient at what one did. Therefore, the hapless generals, almost all political appointments, who led the nation early in the war, gave way to talented generals such as Andrew Jackson by the end. Wills implies that Jefferson and Madison did not understand that the nation could rely upon elite leadership that rose to that position based on merit and talent rather than privilege and entitlement (a situation unfortunately reversed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries).
This is a remarkably solid little biography, another superb entry into the finest series of short presidential biographies ever to be published. I personally think that Wills wants to rate Madison a bit too high. Based merely on his performance, I think he falls pretty much into the middle of the pack of presidents. As a Founder, he is of massive importance, but I think Wills falls into the temptation of nearly ever author in this series of books to rate their subject just a bit higher than they deserve (except for the Buchanan volume--whose author admits that he might be our worst executive). Still, absolutely no one can fail to benefit from this.
Great American but an average President.......2005-06-23
Historian Garry Wills, in assessing James Madison's achievements, concludes that as a framer of the Constitution, author of 29 of the Federalist papers, legislator and Secretary of State, Madison was a great American. As a president, however, he was only average. Madison was strongly in favor of the adoption of the Constitution and he was in favor of certain federal powers. Later, during Washington's presidency, Madison, along with Thomas Jefferson, began to oppose many of these powers that the administration exercised (particularly through Alexander Hamilton) and when political parties were formed, he became a Jeffersonian Republican. Wills notes that he continued to change, however, and as President, Madison consolidated many powers that would have seemed to make him a Federalist. Wills sees a distinction, however, between a true Federalist and modernization. A true Federalist saw centralized banking and credit as a way for the privileged classes to obtain financing. Under Madison, powers were consolidated in more of a meritocracy, making credit vaiulable to all who merited it. In other words, unlike the Federalists, power was not for the benefit of the privileged classes. Another example of this is that because of the war of 1812, military commissions began to be bestowed on the basis of merit rather than as a prize.
Madison was not a great President because he could not manage personnel well and because he followed poor policies of the Jefferson administration. In trying to cope with the problems of violations of US nuetrality in the seas and British impressment of US seamen, he continued the policy of an embargo, mistakenly thinking that commercial sanctions would get Britain to change it's policies. When he finally went to war, the strategy was an ill conceived effort to attack Canada and defeat the British there. He continued the policies of not developing a navy but, ironically, the first major victories of the war were by the meager navy that existed.
The conclusion of the war was ambiguous enough to leave open the debate as to whether the United States or Britain won. Wills points out that in the treaty of Ghent, the United States achieved none of its pre war goals. On the other hand, the war concluded with some military victories. Whether or not the United States won, the issues of nuetrality on the seas and impressment took care of themselves since as tensions between Britain and France eased, there was no longer a need for Britain to violate nuetrality and impress seamen. Wills notes that Madison was very popular when his presidency concluded and that, therefore, he must be rated at least an average President despite his deficiencies. This book offers good insights and I recommend it.
Book Description
George Mason (1725-92) is often omitted from the small circle of founding fathers celebrated today, but in his service to America he was, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "of the first order of greatness." Jeff Broadwater provides a comprehensive account of Mason's life at the center of the momentous events of eighteenth-century America.
Mason played a key role in the Stamp Act Crisis, the American Revolution, and the drafting of Virginia's first state constitution. He is perhaps best known as author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, often hailed as the model for the Bill of Rights.
As a Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Mason influenced the emerging Constitution on point after point. Yet when he was rebuffed in his efforts to add a bill of rights and felt the document did too little to protect the interests of the South, he refused to sign the final draft. Broadwater argues that Mason's recalcitrance was not the act of an isolated dissenter; rather, it emerged from the ideology of the American Revolution. Mason's concerns about the abuse of political power went to the essence of the American experience.
Customer Reviews:
We Learn of Him, But Still Don't "know" Him..........2007-04-07
George Mason, truly an ignored Founder of whom Thomas Jefferson said was "one of our really great men", is treated in a fair and easy to read biography penned by Jeff Broadwater.
The book follows his political career touching upon the many important bills and concepts he introduced into the Revolutionary era Virginia Legislature. The book does a fine job shining a light upon what a key figure to our founding that Mason was.
In many ways, however, one gets a negative view of the man over his constant shirking of duty -- he too often arrived late or not at all to legislative sessions -- and his constant complaining over his health. Granted, if one knows much about the Founders and their era, health seems to be one thing they all constantly whined about. After all, men rarely lived past the late 30s in those days, so any pain or discomfort was feared to be death come a' knocking.
In any case, it was interesting to see the turmoil and difficulty that the state of Virginia had funding and supplying troops to the war effort. With history settled, it is always too easy to feel that the country was united with a single mind and all for the spilt with England as well as ready to sacrifice their last strengths to that effort. Reality, though, is a far different thing than the rose-colored glasses of popular sentiment.
One thing seemed missing from this book, as important as is the information contained within. Mason's voice does not come through in Broadwater's work. We never get as much of a feel for the man as we do for his end work and the times in which he lived.
It's a shame that Broadwater didn't give us more of Mason's own quotes so that we might see what his contemporaries saw in his applauded rhetoric. Perhaps not enough of his own words survive to have attempted that treatment and maybe Broadwater really only had Mason's legislative work from which to glean "the" man, but I still felt the book seemed somewhat detached from the man himself.
In any case, I recommend the book to those who are interested in a Founder who has missed out on the lionizing so many of his fellows have received.
Need a Reason to Struggle Through It.......2007-02-26
I was actively looking forward to a book about George Mason, whose home is a landmark I visited 40-50 years ago, and whose name in my area adorns a major street and a university. Who was he? This book helps explain that. An amazing tale, really, of a gent who had a surprising lot to do with the birth of our nation and its constitution, yet is relatively little known. (Author Broadwater notwithstanding, it's no mystery why Mason has been neglected; he may have been an influential, clear, brilliant, and nonpartisan thinker but he didn't support the Constitution and in general, shunned the limelight.)
The book is not just a biography, but a deep-reaching regional history. It tells a lot about the economic and social issues of the "American colonies" in the 18th century. Many of us overlook that, in the turmoil of creating a nation, there were a lot of ongoing matters of concern, such as the future of the lands to the west. Mason's careful husbanding of his economic and commercial interests augurs the role that commercialism has played ever since in the formation of our country. Finally, Mason's role in creating our Bill of Rights and some of the key elements of the U.S. Constitution cannot be overlooked, but his view that the inevitable tendency of "rulers" to augment their power leads just as inevitably to tyranny remains well worth keeping in mind today.
The writing is a bit turgid, and if you're not much interested in the finer points of constitutional law or legislation, this will likely be a boring book. The author's annoying reliance on "if" clauses, (about one per paragraph) rather than the simple "but", doesn't help.
Too boring to finish.......2007-01-10
I struggled for a long time to try and force myself to read this book. I finally gave up and donated it to our public library. It was boring beyond belief. Only 1 of our 7 member book club finished it, and he didn't like it either!
Good biography of one of the lesser known Founders.......2006-11-13
George Mason was an important figure, seemingly coming out of nowhere, just before and during the Revolution and up to the formulation of the Constitution. He is one of the lesser known founders, probably as much known for being one of the few who refused to sign the Constitution (along with such figures as Luther Martin and Elbridge Gerry).
One key aspect of Mason's personality (page 19): ". . .Mason possessed an incisive intellect and a commanding personality, but he was not inclined to suffer fools gladly or to compromise his own opinions. Given his nature, the mystery may not be why Mason initially showed little interest in the day-to-day business of government, but why he sought public office at all."
This book focuses on his consuming passion for business, including his tenacious effort to make the Ohio Company work. This land company intended to take land and develop it for the profit of the owners. It was a constant struggle and never panned out as desired. His political views had some quirky elements for the time, including a condemnation of slavery (although phrased in the context of the times), although he himself owned slaves.
Given his reputation as one of the leaders in the runup to the Revolution and through the Consitutional Convention, it is odd to see that he was not involved in politics in a major way until middle age. Yet, from 1774 to the Revolution, he bacame one of the major writers of Revolutionary tracts, laying out a critique of England and a case for freedom. While his relations with George Washington were sometimes frosty, he apparently worked well with other leading Virginians, such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, James Madison, and Richard Henry Lee.
After the Constitution was ratified, with Mason arguing against this document, his health began to decline, until he died in 1792. He grew disenchanted with the national government and disagreed with many of its policies after Washington became president. However, he appears to have remained on good terms with some officials, such as John Marshall and James Monroe. While he remained mildly active in local politics from 1789 until his death, he refused an appointment to the United States Senate.
In the end, Mason (page 251) "helped to make a respectable revolution." His legacy (page 251): ". . .his contribution to America's founding documents: the Declaration of Independence through the Virginia Declaration of Rights through his dogged opposition to a Constitution without one."
The book is not particularly elegantly written, but the style is serviceable. There is enough depth to the biography that the reader gains a pretty good picture of Mason, his life, his times, and his role in history. For those interested in the Founding generation and its major actors, this book would be a useful addition to one's library.
Customer Reviews:
The Research Man.......2007-08-06
James Madison was the man who did research and wrote for the politicians of his era. He was the brains behind the speaker (John Adams), the warrior (George Washington), and the diplomat (Thomas Jefferson). He held true to the republican principles, to a fault, literally.
This book can be tedious. It is dense. But it is the very best explanation of the circumstances leading to the War of 1812 I have ever found.
Plan on having another book going at the same time you are reading this one. Or, plan on some good naps along the way because it is complex reading.
Essential reading for understanding James Madison.......2007-08-05
I will start this review by saying that this book is not for the casual reader. To enjoy this book, you have to have a serious interest in the life and political thought of James Madison. The writing style, while certainly not as bad as other reviews have stated, is a straightforward academic presentation that at times can be a bit tedious. That being said, in terms of content this is as excellent a one volume biography as I believe you will find. Ketcham manages to present a full portrait of James Madison with thoughtful and excellent analysis in a surprisingly short amount of text. After reading this volume, I came away with a much better understanding of, and appreciation for, James Madison. Unlike other biographers, who sometimes waste more text than necessary on their own analyses, Ketcham interjects his analysis sparingly but brilliantly.
My minor criticisms are similar to others. The beginning of the book is the most difficult part to read and reflects Ketcham's main weakness as an author - narrative biography. This is especially pronounced in one instance, where he tells the story of Madison's first trip to Princeton, admitting that the story is based on his own best construction of what probably happened since no records are available, and then proceeds with the most boring narrative imaginable. If you are going to tell a conjectural story, at least make it interesting. Ketcham also overuses to annoyance the term "bilious" and frequently uses the word "insure" incorrectly where "ensure" should be used.
Ultimately, my criticisms of this volume are more for providing a two sided review than real detractions. Ketchams volume, while not lively reading, is a superb biography and undoubtedly the best one volume biography of James Madison currently available. Indeed, this biography is perfectly in line with the personality of Madison - while not exciting for its own sake, thoroughly well researched and executed, and ultimately essential.
Mentally draining bio of 4th President.......2007-06-08
I read this book working toward my goal of reading a biography of each President. I'm now nearly half way though and this was by FAR the toughest one to finish.
I read Stephen Ambrose's entire three-part, 18000 page series on Nixon faster than I read this nearly 700 page book on Madison. I can't say I wasn't warned because all the reviews said it was deep and detailed but I didn't want to take the easy way out because the experts say this is by far the book to read on Madison.
It was truly a very well researched and informative book. However, there were chunks of the book that were too detailed and moved too slowly. For instance, I don't care what Dolley Madison wore to balls or how the decorations looked or what political couples attended and what the other wives were wearing. I also don't care how tough the trip was for everyone to get everywhere and how Madison got sick everytime the wind blew the wrong way on the Potomac.
What I do care about is how Madison worked with Jefferson and others to shape our form of government. I care about his time in congress, how he handled his duties during the revolution, the circumstances that lead to his Presidency, how he managed the war of 1812, what role he played in critical issues such as the development of the national bank and the treatment of American sailors by the British navy. I also really wanted to know about his relationship with other well known historical figures.
All of that information is in there but it is buried amongst stuff that to be honest I just didn't care about.
Ketcham is obviously "The Man" when it comes to James Madison and I'm quite sure in historical circles this book is highly respected because it is such a complete bio of him. But, it definitely isn't for your average reader.
For those new bio readers interested in Presidents I would suggest Robert Dallek's book on JFK or Jead Edward Smith's bio of Grant. Those are detailed but they are told with the backdrop of better known periods - Civil War/Reconstruction and WWII/Cold War. Those are more interesting periods I think and those bios seemed to move faster.
This book was good but you've got to be ready to get into it and pay attention because the details and stuff that you really care about can be hidden and very laborious at times to get to.
A medicore biography.......2006-12-14
James Madison might be the worst president in history when his life is laid out as Ketcham has done here. The administration was a complete failure from the loss of the capital to economic problems. Despite this Madison's contributions to the constitution and the bill of rights are impressive. Unfortunately this biography was not very well written and although the information was good I found myself slow to get through it. It does not hold in the tradition of many other biographies on people from these times that are real page turners. If you are truly interested in Madison this biography will do the job otherwise I would only rate it as mediocre for those who have an interest in the American Revolution.
Completely Exhausting.......2006-06-29
Although I found this book very interesting, I thought it was way too detailed to the point of exhaustion in certain areas of Madison's life. However, if you want to know everything there is to know about James Madison, this is the book. I am an avid reader of presidential biographies, however, I almost dreaded returning to this book night after night to plow thru tedious and repetitive details in order to learn about this great man. This is why only 3 stars.
Book Description
A Choice Magazine "Outstanding Academic Book for 1996"
Co-winner of the 1997 Merle Curti Award in American Intellectual History from the Organization of American Historians
"Brilliant and original. . . . The Sacred Fire of Liberty is a challenging book, bristling with ideas and filled with fine shades of emphasis and meaning. Yet there is . . . no jargon or academic obfuscation, and the attentive reader should have no trouble following the argument."--Evan Cornog, New York Times Book Review
"No one who has followed Banning's account of Madison's development . . . will read The Federalist or plot the trajectory of his career in quite the same way again. This is no small achievement."--Edmund S. Morgan, The New Republic
"Well researched and eloquently rendered. . . . An essential addition to the scholarship on the New Republic."--Library Journal
Customer Reviews:
Lance Banning and the hermeneutics of generosity.......2006-05-21
Lance Banning passed away on Jan. 31 of this year. When I learned this I decided to change the focus of my review a little.
First, what do I mean by the hermeneutics of generosity? By hermeneutics I mean a scheme or method of interpretation. An intellectual biographer who uses a hermeneutics of generosity starts off with certain assumptions. Everything people do they do for reasons. From the point of view of the biographical subject they are always good reasons.
If you believe your subject to be a person of exacting moral standards and exceptional intelligence, then you assume that everything they have done can be back up by compelling arguments that have been long considered.
This style of hermeneutics is obvious in two ways in Banning's work. Obviously, in the way he approaches Madison. But the first thing I want to talk about is the way Banning reacts to other scholars. His notes are extraordinary. Banning read everyone who had written on Madison and located his interpretations in relation to that of others. He not only carefully explains the differences between his interpretations and those of others (e.g., Martin Diamond, Gordon Woods, Paul Rahe and Jennifer Nedelsky among others) but he also points out the strengths of their alternatives. This was a man who knew how to listen to his sources and not just to one up them.
But it is really in regard to James Madison that Banning's approach shines through in all its humanity. Banning believes that there is a standard version of Madion's intellectual biography that is largely wrong. That standard version is based on the biographies of Irving Brant and Ralph Ketcham and the intellectual histories of Gordon Woods and Martin Diamond. In the standard version, James Madison (JM) started off as a strong nationalist in the early 1780s. He was part of the movement at that time to modify the Articles or to change them completely. JM's method of constitutional interpretation at that time is usually considered to have been expansive or willing to loosely construe the document so as to justify non-explicit central government powers (e.g., Morris' national bank).
JM's nationalistic period continued all the way through his work at the Constitutional Convention, the writing of The Federalist and his first year in the new Congress. However, when Hamilton's economic programs began to unfold during the second and third terms of Congress, JM began to backpedal on his nationalism and his expansive constructionism. By the mid-1790s, JM is usually seen as a strict constructionist and a states rights theorist who would remain so all his life. Thus the standard version gives us two Madisons, who can only be connected by various versions of the Madison as practical or conniving politician who changed his stripes due to the political winds of the moment.
Banning will have none of this. He believes the standard version misrepresents all aspects of JM's career. Banning believes that if we take JM's writings throughout his life seriously, then he clearly see a very consistent thinker whose whole career is centered around the dynamic problem of how to ground government on the people without being exposed to the inconveniences or "excesses" of democratic rule. I will limit my discussion of Banning's revisionism (his term) to his interpretation of two aspects of JM's career that are essential to his argument.
The first is JM's career in the Continental Congress of the early 1780s. The democratic excesses were showing up in the Confederation period in the behavior of the states.
Banning shows that in the early 1780s that JM was indeed a nationalist but a qualified one. JM read the national scene from the point of view of Virginia and from his understanding of revolutionary politics. Any national measure that wasn't good for Virginia was unlikely to be favored by JM. As for the Conferderation, the problem was the weakness of the federal Union. If the structural flaws of the Articles could be amended, the misbehavior of the states could be controlled. Thus, at this point in his career, Madison was not part of the movement that wanted to jettison the Articles. He merely wanted to amend them to make implicit powers explicit. That point is very important. Banning argues forcefully from JM's writings that even at this point, JM was a strict constructionist. So the standard version is wrong in two ways about the early Madison.
The other central moment in Banning's revision is the aftermath of the Constitutional Convention, especially, the writing of The Federalist. This is usually seen as one of the strongest arguments for the standard view. It is well known that Madison expressed dismay after the Convention about the prospects for the longevity of the new government should it be ratified. He was upset that his suggestion for a national veto of the laws of the individual states had not been written into the finished document. He also was dismayed that the representation in the Senate was equal for each state. He thought this repeated a fundamental flaw in the Articles.
And yet, within two months, JM was well into writing The Federalist where he explicitly agreed with both of these decisions by the Convention. Most readers, including myself, find this to be a little disingenuous on Madison's part. But for Banning, this was indicative of JM having changed his mind. According to Banning, during the course of reflecting on the work of the Convention and of writing The Federalist, JM must have realized that his opponents in the Convention had compelling reasons for doing what they did and he therefore changed his mind. Banning states that anyone who has written out a long argument is familiar with changing their mind during the course of the writing. Fair enough.
But this brings me to the two main issues that I had with Banning's whole thesis.
As proof that JM accepted the counterarguments against his idea of a national government veto, Banning claims that JM never tried to push that idea again after his writing of The Federalist. In this, I think he can be shown to be, at least, partially wrong. When JM first introduced his Bill of Rights proposal to the first Congress, his fifth Amendment stated "No state shall violate the equal rights of conscious, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases." It seems to me to be arguable that JM was trying to get through as much of a national veto as he thought possible. The theoretician was trimming his sails to the political winds. This is not a bad thing. Most any reasonable reformer will take what they can get.
But it speaks to one of the central tensions in JM's thought and Banning's revisionism. JM obviously believed that any government, to be legitimate, had to be founded on the people. But he did not trust the people to behave, to not become a "factious" majority willing to strip the rights
of some minority. As far as I can read, JM or Banning's version thereof never gives us a definition of what sets off a "factious" majority from a majority pursuing the true interests of the country. This is where Madison the politician enters. I often feel that JM, like Jefferson, was willing to take advantage of political changes and that they were more than willing to alter or bend their philosophies to do so. When they were out of power, it was easy to be consistent theorists. Once in power, it turned out that there were more things to deal with than dreamed of in their philosophies. Unlike Prof. Banning, I am okay with that. I do not feel that Banning succeeds in explaining away this tendency of JM's. I suggest that when you read this book that you keep a copy of the Library of America's edition of Madison's Writings near to hand. It contains most of the papers that JM wrote which Banning uses. Read each one before you read the corresponding section of Banning and see if you always agree with what Banning makes of that particular writing. I did not.
Have I learned from the reading of this book? Yes, yes, O my yes. This is an extraordinarily learned book written with a generous and respectful scholastic spirit. Banning has changed much of how I read Madison if not as much as he might have wished. But the real pleasures of this book have to do as much with spending time with Lance Banning's intellect and spirit as those of JM.
In fact, perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the author is that I think that James Madison would have found him a kindred spirit.
One final note: the Liberty Fund is publishing a volume this summer edited by David Womersley entitled Liberty and American Experience in the Eighteenth Century. It will contain what is probably Banning's last publication- an article entitle, "Federalism, Constitutionalism, and Republican Liberty: The First Constructions of the Constitution". I plan to be among the first to read it. Do I have my geek on or what?
Madison finally revealed.......2001-03-22
Lance Bannings book is excellent, and long ovedue. History has left us a view of Madison that suggested he was Jefferson's lieutenant, an apostate to his nationilistic views in the 1790's, one view even diminished him to a 'trimmer' of ideas. The average person knows little of the Father of the Constituion, and as Jack Rakove stated at Princeton this February passed, we are learning what Madison always knew. Most views of Madison are not the result of individual study and research, many opinions of Madison arise from previous treatments. Banning began with the exchanges of Madison and found the consistency Madison always claimed. The actual history of Madison reveals an enormously capacious, hard working force behind the Constituion, Bill of Rights,The Federalist Papers, 41 years of public service, and the workings and definition of goverment. Viewed by friend and political foes as, brilliant and ' one adept at committee work and reasoned argument, one who could be depended on to speak and write with precision and force what others could express but vauely and in part.' Banning has surpassed those before him in Madisonian scholarship, by ardously discovering The Real Madison. The attention to detail is excellent, and the scholarship is not self defending just revealing. As Madison's true nature unfolds the consistency is revealed, from lieutenant to an independent thinker, and finally to the proper position of one the key thinkers behind American government. Being one dependent on scholars for my view of history, and granting then occaisonally the keepers of arcanum a merit they do not deserve, it is refreshing to have Lance Bannings contribution not only to Madisonian scholarship, but also to American History. The ongoing efforts by Dave Mattern and the Papers of James Madison have brought enormous information to light in the last few years, and it appears the work of Banning may be the beginning of Madison taking his deserved place in our history and common parlance, a parlance altered by the independent and ardous study this book represents.
Repetative, yet excellent reinterpretation.......1998-08-24
Banning's book is a repetative, prolonged and far too lengthy an essay. He imaginatively and masterfully reinteprets Madison's ideas and actions as a member of several deliberative bodies that preceeded and followed the writing and ratification of the Constitution, finding him to be consistent throughout in his views on a central government and the powers of the states. The reading can be somewhat tedious for its redundancies, but worth the effort. Bannings scholarship is impecable, yet the book ought to be only an article in a scholarly journal.
Book Description
James Madison survived longer than any other member of the most remarkable generation of political leaders in American history. Born in the middle of the eighteenth century as a subject of King George II, the Father of the United States Constitution lived until 1836, when he died a citizen of Andrew Jackson's republic. For over forty years he played a pivotal role in the creation and defense of a new political order. He lived long enough to see even that Revolutionary world transformed, and the system of government he had nurtured threatened by the disruptive forces of a new era that would ultimately lead to civil war. In recounting the experience of Madison and several of his legatees who witnessed the violent test of whether his republic could endure, McCoy dramatizes the actual working out in human lives of critical cultural and political issues.
Customer Reviews:
Madison, his followers, the constitution, nullification and slavery........2006-08-07
This book seems to me to have two main purposes. The first is to present Madison's ideas about constitutional interpretation. The second is to show how Madison applied those ideas to the related issues of nullification and slavery. In order to serve these purposes McCoy choose to focus on the final and private portion of Madison's life and on the subsequent careers of three proteges of Madison's: Nicholas P. Trist, William Cabell Rives and Edward Coles.
The result is an altogether magnificent accomplishment-extremely well written, deeply researched and ultimately quite convincing.
There are many reasons why issues of constitutional interpretation came to the fore after Madison retired from public life. Madison, in his last major act as President vetoed an internal improvements bill on constitutional grounds (pp. 92-95). In the following years, there were many debates about the constitutionality of the Bank of the U.S., Georgia's policies toward the Cherokees, the tariff and the idea of nullification.
Certain principles of Madison's approach emerge from McCoy's exposition of this history.
The Constitution had been ratified by the people of the several states in state conventions. Thus the national government had the same origins and authority as the state constitutions. The people of the several states by that ratification had delegated to the Federal Government certain specified areas of sovereignity. Within those limited areas the national government was supreme(p.135-6). The Supreme Court is the proper
authority for determining the dividing line between the authority of the states and the federal government (p.70 and see Federalist 39).
Madison throughout his life was a strict constructionist or a textualist. He had been so during his early 1780's stint in the Continental Congress and was still so in the 1830s. He strongly disapproved of loose construction of the general welfare clause (pp.77-8). He felt the same way in re the necessary and proper clause. Madison felt that the Marshall Court had opened a Pandora's box with its reasoning in McCulloch vs. Maryland (pp99-102).
He was equally faithful to the idea of majority rule when it came to interpretation. He thought that if measures "reflecting a particular understanding of the Constitution were uniformly sustained by successive legislatures, and their constitutionality openly debated and acceded to, especially by other divisions and levels of government, such legislation constituted binding precedent" (p.80). The question, of course, is what length of time was required. McCoy sees this tendency as part of Madison's desire for stability (p.128) as well as for majority rule.
On the other hand, Madison was always alert to the dangers of majorities being uncontrolled. He felt that "perhaps the greatest danger" to strict interpretation of the Constitution was the "the usefullness and popularity of measures". Measures that were popular and useful were inevitably seen as constitutional by politicians (p.102).
A state does not have the right to "act within its borders against federal laws that it judged unconstitutional"(p.145). This is the way he saw it at the end of his life and that is the way he claimed he wrote it in the Virginia Resolution of 1798 and the Report of 1800. These papers had only attempted to rally and organize public opinion. Madison felt that they had been successful in light of the results of the 1800 election.
It should be clear how different Madison's theory is from that of Calhoun. Calhoun fully espoused the compact theory of the Constitution. This theory sees the Constitution as being the creation of the States. The individual states retain their full sovereignity within their borders and within their respective governmental areas. South Carolina regarded the tariffs as both unconstitutional and vicious. They saw themselves and the South as a whole bearing the majority burdern of the expense of running the federal government while being a minority of the population.
Calhoun's solution was nullification. It works like this:
1. A state nullifies a federal law as unconstitutional.
2. ¼ of the other states support it thus forcing the federal government to
3. Seek a constitutional amendment approving of the disputed authority and
4. If ¾ of the states approve the amendment, that authority belongs to the federal
government but
5. The dissenting states can either acquiesce to that decision or secede.
To Madison, this was a madness ignorant of history. He felt it would return us to the state of the nation circa the 1780s when the power and willfulness of the states had all but destroyed the Union (pp.132-3). He also reminded Calhoun that that same history had taught majority abuses within a state were often as tyrannical and abusive as majority abuses within the nation (p.138). Ironically enough the nullifiers with South Carolina imposed a test oath on all government officials (except the legislature) within the state and determined that anyone who refused the oath would lose their office.
McCoy's delineation of Madison's position on the Missouri Compromise, the Bank Bill, the nullification controvery, the tariff, internal improvements and so on are exemplery. He is lucid and very readable.
However, on the issue of slavery, Madison's thinking was much more muddled. He was not comfortable with the issue and never really resolved it in his mind. He was a proponent of the voluntary exportation of freed slaves back to Africa even though few had any desire to go back to someplace they had never known (the vast majority of the slaves at this period had been born in the US). As for his own slaves, it appears he was more concerned about the financial security of Dolly Madison then their freedom. In fairness to Madison, it should be noted that many of his slaves were elderly at the time of his death and freeing them might actually have been a worse fate (and what does that statement say about our country?)
McCoy traces out the slavery issue through the careers of Madison three disciples. Coles, who became one of the early governors of Illinois, actually freed his slaves when he left Virginia (although he too was for the exportation scheme). Rives was perhaps the most Madisonian of the disciples. After actually voting for Jackson's Force Bill as a Virginia senator he was exposed to all sorts of verbal and even physical abuse (p.337). Rives was to live until the late 1860s. His life and thinking are the subject of McCoy's final chapter. This is arguably the richest part of this book although it defies (for me) easy exposition.
McCoy brings out much of the tensions that existed toward slavery in Madison's variant of republicanism. It was never admitted but in many ways the slaves served as the underclass that was needed to do the lowest tasks of society. They were also easy to justify excluding from the governance of the "democratic republic" (p.349-350). Madison never ceased to deny this. In this sense (alone), Calhoun was more honest.
I know I have gone on too long but this is a very rich book. To be honest, I wish McCoy would consider expanding it into a multi-volume biography of Madison. We need a new standard biography that reflects the scholarly endeavors of recent decades.
But for anyone who wants to understand the rich complex imperfect thought of the greatest theoretical politician America has ever produced, this book is a necessary read.
too much citing.......2005-10-19
I found this book horribly written. For any amazing president who helped to mold our nation, this author certainly did not portray Madison this way. I've read a number of books about other historical figure that all managed to capture the time and person, but this one did not. The only people who will probably pore over this book with slight interest will be the students that have assigned for class.
an informative study.......2002-08-19
This is a fine work of scholarship in the area of intellectual history. McCoy offers a penetrating exposition of the ideas of one of this country's most important intellectuals, and explores Madison's great achievements as well as some of the disturbing contradictions within his thought, especially concerning the question of slavery.
Madison, of course, opposed slavery, but had great fears about the dangers of emancipation, and thus ended up endorsing colonization, a position now long since discredited. McCoy's treatment of this issue is insightful and relevant to any discussion of the later sectional crisis. The contradiction between slavery and the principles of American republicanism were real, as Madison understood very well, and ultimately were more or less resolved in the kind of war that Madison had feared.
Madison's concerns about the importance of public support for education, and the opportunities and dangers of industrialization and unemployment reveal a man both principled and pragmatic in his approach to new developments in the rapidly growing Republic. McCoy shows us an intellectually vigorous Madison who was skeptical about human nature, committed to republican institutions, and alert to the need to accommodate the new realities created by social and economic change. In McCoy's treatment, Madison was a principled thinker, but never an ideologue who might prefer the consistency of a philosophical system over the experience of reality.
McCoy's chapter on Madison's view of the 1832-1833 nullification crisis is also especially informative. Although Madison is often cited as a supporter of state nullification, based on a careless reading of his 1798 Virginia Resolution (that is often paired with Jefferson's more explicitly nullificationist 1798 Kentucky Resolution), in fact Madison was opposed to the South Carolina anti-tariff movement, and argued that while high tariffs might be a bad idea, they were not unconstitutional -- indeed, "no great constitutional question" was involved.
Worse, according to McCoy, Madison feared that the logic of nullification would lead to "a rupture of the Union; a Southern confederacy; mutual enmity with the Northern; the most dreadful animosities and border wars, springing from the case of slaves; rival alliances abroad; standing armies at home, to be supported by internal taxes; and federal Governments, with powers of a more consolidating and monarchical tendency than the greatest jealousy has charged on the existing systems" (Madison, quoted in McCoy, p. 134).
The book is well-documented from primary sources -- especially letters and personal papers -- but it would be nice if McCoy had included at the conclusion a complete bibliography, along with some commentary on how his findings related to the current literature on Madison, but that is a quibble; this is not a doctoral dissertation but a serious study, accessible to the ordinary reader, of a key founder of the Republic whose adult life spanned the colonial period in the 1770s though the Jacksonian era in the 1830s.
Madison, for all his strengths and limitations, remains one of the great political thinkers in American, and indeed, world, history. He is justly seen as the father of the Constitution. This book is a great introduction to the ideas and experience of "the last of the fathers."
The Last of the Fathers.......2002-02-01
When reading the book you get the feeling that James Madison was thinking of how to preserve the actions and thoughts of the new republic founders. Madison lived longer than most of the founding fathers and saw the transition and change of the U.S. government.
The Father of the Constitution out lived both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by 10 years and saw the new government he had worked hard to preserve, now threatened. Slavery was only one of his worries...Madison sought to stabilize a fragile system of politics that threatened to crack the national unity.
Madison was a shy man, but when the time arose he was a most ardent supporter of the republican faith. People asked Madison on how to fashion their government... he inturn would espouse the need for the study of history. The history of the founding and the ideals that sprung forth to birth a great nation.
This approach moved him away from the mainstream of public attention, all along wanting the public attention to focus on the nation as a whole.
This book is a good study into Madison the man, from his early days as a young Revolutionary to his last years caught in the moral dilemma of abolitionism and proslavery arguments. Later in our history we shall see Madison's thoughts come to life.
We read a lot of Madison's letters on these subjects and others, thereby giving us a good look into Madison the man... character and temperament struggling to resolve these issues.
If one is into reading about the Founding Fathers and their times, thoughts and tribulations; this is a good book to read. I found this book to be interesting with good flowing narative, well documented and useful.
Read it and enjoy... I did
An examination of the Constitution's historical role.......1998-12-24
This is an excellent book for those who wish to understand Madison's view of the purpose of the Constitution and his perception of how it should be used by posterity. Madison insisted that anyone who was responsible for making laws should have a full understanding of the Constitution's content. McCoy, in a straightforward and clear writing style, clearly presents Madison's perspective and his dilemmas'--the issues of a republic vs a democracy and an ideal of the natural rights of man vs the existence of slavery. McCoy examines the philosophical background from which Madison's beliefs evolved as well as how his ideas contrasted with his contemporaries. He also documents in great detail the 'students' of Madison and how they interpreted his legacy. But his discussion of Madison as slaveowner and believer in the natural right of man to liberty and the hardening attitude of the South during his lifetime makes this book excellent.
Book Description
ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED
BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay's brilliant and controversial collection of essays and articles that define and explain the ideals upon which the United States of America was founded.
EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:
• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information
• A chronology of the author's life and work
• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations
• Detailed explanatory notes
• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience
Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.
SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON
Customer Reviews:
Excellent transaction!.......2006-11-10
A+++ Very fast shipment! Would definitely do business with this person again! Wow!
Book Description
Henry Adams portrayed James Madison as a weak president who lacked both decisiveness and administrative skills. For a century, most historians accepted Adams's assessment.
In this study of the fourth presidency distinguished historian Robert Rutland paints a more complicated portrait. Rutland, former editor-in-chief of the Madison Papers, sees Madison as a bookish, practical statesman who worked furiously to avoid conflicts in his cabinet and in Congress. When he finally realized England would not be swayed by economic pressure, he boldly led the nation into a second war for independence that allowed the United States to emerge with a renewed sense of dignity and purpose.
Rutland's lively narrative covers all major events of the Madison administration, including the War of 1812 and the push for national expansion. It provides a fresh interpretation not only of the contribution of Madison's presidency, but also of the "master builder of the Constitution" himself. Madison emerges neither as the weakling painted by Henry Adams nor as a demigod, but rather as a man who attempted to be the president envisioned at the Constitutional Convention and who achieved his highest priority, to strengthen the Union.
This book is part of the American Presidency Series.
Customer Reviews:
An account of a nation becoming an international power.......2001-09-30
Writing after the fact, historians often conclude that a war was preventable. This is generally false, as the dispassionate writer is removed from the context of the times. The war in 1812 between the United States and Great Britain has often been viewed as a pointless, forgettable war, yet in fact it had enormous consequences. The war was the defining moment of the Madison presidency and a significant break from the policy of the previous Jefferson and early Madison administrations. In describing the war, Rutland is masterful in describing the context and emotions of the times, the combination of which caused a war that was inevitable.
At the time, the Napoleonic wars were raging on the European continent and both Britain and France sought to wring every advantage they could out of what they considered an upstart nation. For years, Jefferson and Madison tried every tactic they could short of war in an attempt to delay a call to arms. Finally, national pride won out over all other factors and the war began. Madisonýs conduct of the war was not nearly as effective as it could have been, and yet the tie was all that was needed. James Monroe, the successor to Madison, enunciated what is now known as the Monroe doctrine, which warned all nations to avoid colonization efforts in the Western Hemisphere. With little American sea power to back it up, it was the first example of cooperation between Britain and the United States, as the enforcement was due to the power of the British navy. It is doubtful that this could have happened without the war.
The ways in which Rutland places the war in the context of power struggles in Europe and in the United States is masterful, as he describes how fragmented the United States was in those years. It is also possible to see the seeds of an eventual split and internal war, not over the issue of slavery, but over commercial and social differences.
In so many ways, Madisonýs best years were behind him when he became president. And yet, his handling of the war of 1812 was most likely the best that could have been done, as he sought to defend a fractious nation against an old foe who afterward became a staunch ally. For that reason alone, his administration should be considered a success and this book is the most realistic appraisal of his years in the White House that I have ever seen.
Average customer rating:
|
James Madison: Our Fourth President (Our Presidents)
Ann Gaines
Manufacturer: Child's World
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
 Political
| Biographies
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
U. S. Presidents & First Ladies
| Biographies
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Children's Books
| Large Print
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: 1567668402 |
Book Description
A thorough, illustrated biography discussing the president's childhood, his career, his family, and his term as President of the United States. Includes a time line and glossary.
Books:
- Jay's Journal of Anomalies : Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Side-Show Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments
- John Quincy Adams: (The American Presidents Series)
- Journal of a Solitude
- Kierkegaard for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book)
- Kingdom of Fear : Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- Light My Fire (Aisling Grey, Guardian, Book 3)
- Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS (Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Books)
- Little House (9 Books, Boxed Set)
- Martin Van Buren : The Romantic Age of American Politics (Signature Series)
- Mary Chesnut's Civil War
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Dining Room & Banquet Management, 3E
- The Pack: Touch Of The Wolf
- Joseph Schumpeter: Scholar, Teacher, and Politician
- How the Foreign Exchange Market Works
- Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Reality and Challenges
- The Resiliency Advantage: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back from Setbacks
- Security Design: The Process & the Basics
- Fundamental Accounting Principles: Student Spreadsheet Applications Template Software for Microsoft
- New Methods in Financial Modeling: Explorations and Applications
- A Guide to the Trees of Utah and the Intermountain West
James Monroe (The American Presidents)
John Quincy Adams: (The American Presidents Series)
Thomas Jefferson: (The American Presidents Series)
John Adams: The American Presidents Series
George Washington (The American Presidents)
