A sweeping reexamination of the Founding Father who transformed the
United States in each of his political "lives"--as a revolutionary
thinker, as a partisan political strategist, and as a president
"In order to understand America and its Constitution, it is necessary
to understand James Madison."--Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times
bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci
Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States
three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for
its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an
older, cannier politician he co-founded the original Republican party,
setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having
pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the
United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime
president and, despite the odds, winning.
Now Noah Feldman offers an intriguing portrait of this elusive genius
and the constitutional republic he created--and how both evolved to meet
unforeseen challenges. Madison hoped to eradicate partisanship yet found
himself giving voice to, and institutionalizing, the political divide.
Madison's lifelong loyalty to Thomas Jefferson led to an irrevocable
break with George Washington, hero of the American Revolution. Madison
closely collaborated with Alexander Hamilton on the Federalist
papers--yet their different visions for the United States left them
enemies.
Alliances defined Madison, too. The vivacious Dolley Madison used her
social and political talents to win her husband new supporters in
Washington--and define the diplomatic customs of the capital's society.
Madison's relationship with James Monroe, a mixture of friendship and
rivalry, shaped his presidency and the outcome of the War of 1812.
We may be more familiar with other Founding Fathers, but the United
States today is in many ways Madisonian in nature. Madison predicted
that foreign threats would justify the curtailment of civil liberties.
He feared economic inequality and the power of financial markets over
politics, believing that government by the people demanded resistance to
wealth. Madison was the first Founding Father to recognize the
importance of public opinion, and the first to understand that the media
could function as a safeguard to liberty.
The Three Lives of James Madison is an illuminating biography of the
man whose creativity and tenacity gave us America's distinctive form of
government. His collaborations, struggles, and contradictions define the
United States to this day.
