James Madison is remembered primarily as a systematic political theorist, but this bookish and unassuming man was also a practical politician who strove for balance in an age of revolution. In this biography, Jeff Broadwater focuses on Madison's role in the battle for religious freedom in Virginia, his contributions to the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, his place in the evolution of the party system, his relationship with

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This is the first full-length biography, in over a decade, of James Madison, our fourth President and icon of the conservative movement. In it, the author, a historian looks beyond Madison's traditional moniker, "The Father of the Constitution", to find a more complex and realistic portrait of this influential Founding Father. Instead of an idealized portrait of Madison, the author treats readers to the story of a man who often performed his founding...

"Using newly uncovered troves of letters at the University of Virginia, Chadwick has been able to reconstruct the details of the Madisons' personal and political lives. Based on this archive, the author argues that our fourth president--the architect of the Constitution--owed much of his success to the political savvy of his wife. And Dolley, through her many social skills, created the dynamic role of First Lady that we know today"--