The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President

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.

Author: Noah Feldman
Publisher: Picador USA
Published: 02/11/2020
Pages: 832
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.42lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781250267009

About the Author
Noah Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University as well as a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a contributing writer for Bloomberg Opinion, host of the podcast Deep Background, and the author of Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices as well as Cool War: The Future of Global Competition, among other books.