James madison biography reviews of windows

Reviewed by Gregory May

Writing to Thomas Jefferson, the erstwhile political enemy with whom he had resumed a friendly correspondence in old age, John Adams concluded that the Madison Administration “notwithstanding a thousand Faults and blunders … acquired more glory, and established more Union, than all his three predecessors, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, put together.” We think of James Madison as the Father of the Constitution and not as a great president, so Adams’s assessment of Madison’s presidency leaves us puzzled.

James madison biography reviews of windows

Richard Brookhiser’s new biography of Madison shares Adams’s deeper insight into Madison’s achievements. It is a short, readable account of Madison’s remarkable political career from a good and perceptive writer. While unlikely to satisfy readers who already know Madison well, the book has much to offer the rest of us.

Richard Brookhiser begins on that hot August day in 1814 when British troops scattered American defenders at Bladensburg, to