James madison biography best

Years ago my colleague, Michael Waldron, and I decided to read at least one biography of every U.S. president. We started before we met and made mostly independent choices on which books to read. We finally got through all the Presidents and compared notes to create a best presidential biographies reading list. If we read different books, I start with Michael&#;s notes, then mine, and give you our verdict.

George Washington

MW: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. I enjoyed the biography. I&#;m confident Chernow does his research and produces a comprehensive work.

SA: Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner. A single volume distillation of Flexner&#;s definitive four-volume biography provides a dated but then definitive overview of Washington. I liked it. When Chernow&#;s book came out, I ended up reading it too.

Verdict: Chernow&#;s book. More recent and detailed.

John Adams

John Adamsby David McCullough. A great storyteller bringing to life an important founding father and American family.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meachem. A very good biography that we both enjoyed more than others we read about Jefferson.

MW also read Thomas Jefferson & the New Nation by Merrill Peterson. In his view, it&#;s a long and pedantic biography on a character who lived an extremely interesting life. I disliked Jefferson as a President and believe he&#;s significantly overrated. At the same point, I respect his real accomplishments and genius.

SA also read American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson and enjoyed it although not as much as Meachem&#;s book. Jefferson had one excellent term and one mediocre one, and while severely flawed had a major impact as a founding father.

James Madison

MW: The Fourth President: A Life of James Madison by Irving Brant. Brant wrote 6 volumes on Madison covering in detail his time during the American Revolution, the

Having taken two months to work through my collection of Thomas Jefferson biographies, it&#;s time to turn to our fourth president: James Madison.

As we all know (or so the sign welcoming us to Orange County, VA informs us), James Madison is commonly known as the &#;Father of the US Constitution.&#;

Despite this impressive legacy, however, there are few great, or even popular, biographies of this early president and influential leader.  My library currently includes just three (but almost four) books on Madison.

The oldest (and the book I&#;m starting with) is the classic by Ralph Ketcham (&#;James Madison: A Biography&#;).  Anyone who has ever read a Madison biography seems to have read this book.  I&#;m about a quarter of the way into it now. Reviews are solid but not spectacular, but only time and more progress will help me render my own verdict.

Next up is &#;Madison and Jefferson&#; by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg, published in  Rather than being a strict biography, this is more a tale of the extraordinary friendship and partnership between these two leading historical figures.  Nonetheless, I hope to learn as much from it as I would an ordinary-course biography.  I almost began the Madison presidency with this book but opted to start with an &#;old classic&#; instead.

Next, and currently hostage to the U.S. mail, is Richard Brookhiser&#;s biography &#;James Madison&#;.  Reviews are underwhelming, but this will be my first book by Brookhiser so I decided to give it a shot.  Also, I live &#;next door&#; to Madison&#;s home county (the photo above required about a six minute drive from my house) so I feel obliged to devote more than four inches of shelf space to his presidency.

Last is Kevin Gutzman&#;s &#;James Madison and the Making of America&#;. Here, too, reviews suggest something other than a gripping thriller, but I&#;m going to give it a try anyway.  I (usually) love an underdog&#;

It

[Updated July ]

James Madison may have provided the fewest biographies for me to read among the first four presidents but he certainly offered no less mystery. After four books and almost 2, pages, I still find Madison as enigmatic as any of the presidents before him. But while he is the least well-known among this group, he was in no way the least accomplished.

Madison was the author, co-author and/or primary &#;champion&#; of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, The Federalist Papers, the Virginia Declaration of Rights (the section on religious freedom) and the Virginia Resolution of  He was the Sponsor of Jefferson&#;s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the second Rector (President) of the University of Virginia, the founder of one of the earliest political parties and Secretary of State.  Oh, and he was a two-term President.

Madison was also involved in one of the most unique, powerful, extraordinary and remarkably interesting friendships and political alliances in the history of the United States, with Thomas Jefferson.

There is a great deal to be learned about, and from, James Madison. But one thing seems inevitable: we will never &#;get to know&#; him as we can George Washington (about whom so much has been written), or John Adams or Thomas Jefferson (many of their personal letters survive, including some which are almost self-diagnostic in nature).  Nonetheless, by virtue of his enormous body of political work we are able to learn a great deal about the &#;public&#; face of Madison.

* Every early president seems to have a timeless &#;go to&#; biography by a truly dedicated author.  In the case of James Madison, that biography is Ralph Ketcham&#;s &#;James Madison: A Biography&#; published in  Authoritative biographies (particularly those several decades old) are often less readable and enjoyable than those more recently drafted; Ketcham&#;s biography is no exception.

But after reading m