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James Madison : America's First Politician by Jay Cost (2021, Hardcover)

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Previous biographies have made sense of Madison's mixed record by breaking his life into discrete periods. But this approach falls short. As Jay Cost argues in this incisive new biography, we cannot comprehend Madison's legacy without understanding him as a working politician.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherBasic Books

ISBN-101541699556

ISBN-139781541699557

eBay Product ID (ePID)7050404672

Product Key Features

Book TitleJames Madison : America's First Politician

Number of Pages464 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicUnited States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Presidents & Heads of State, American Government / Executive Branch, United States / General

Publication Year2021

GenrePolitical Science, Biography & Autobiography, History

AuthorJay Cost

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.7 in

Item Weight24.9 Oz

Item Length9.6 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2021-019211

ReviewsJay Cost, whose University of Chicago PhD in political philosophy has been supplemented by years of close attention to Washington politics, is the perfect person to decipher Madison's long career in the public arena. It involved many supposed, but few actual, contradictions. The most intellectually supple and sophisticated of the Founders, Madison exemplified, more than any major political thinker ever has, the unity of theory and practice: His political thinking informed his political vocation, which required continuous accommodation of principles to realities.-- George F. Will, author of The Conservative Sensibility, "Historians have long characterized Madison as waffling or inconsistent--sometimes postulating multiple Madisons. Without sugarcoating, Jay Cost gives us a 'single' unified Madison who was the 'Republican' mean between Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian extremes--or, as Cost puts it, 'the first great American politician.' Madison fans and detractors alike will enjoy this riveting overview of his life and amazing career."-- Randy E. Barnett, Professor, Georgetown Law, and author of Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of We the People, "Cost ( The Price of Greatness , 2018) emphasizes Madison's role as politician, founder of the Democratic-Republican party, and a man of profound principle who shepherded the Bill of Rights to ratification, but who understood the necessity for change and compromise, such as his reversal on the issue of a national bank."-- Booklist, "In this profound and clarifying biography, Jay Cost shows how some familiar Madisonian contradictions can be reconciled by grasping that James Madison's practice of politics was devoted to the same great cause as his theories of politics: the challenge of reconciling differences in a diverse republic. That is very much our challenge now, and this is a book with much to teach today's America."-- Yuval Levin, author of A Time to Build

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal973.51092

SynopsisAn intellectual biography of James Madison, arguing that he invented American politics as we know it How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history; his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist Papers and then helped to found the Republican Party just a few years later. This so-called Madison problem has occupied scholars for ages. As Jay Cost shows in this incisive new biography, the underlying logic of Madison's seemingly mixed record comes into focus only when we understand him primarily as a working politician. Whereas other founders split their time between politics and other vocations, Madison dedicated himself singularly to the work of politics and ultimately developed it into a distinctly American idiom. He was, in short, the first American politician., How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history -- his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist papers and then helped to found the Republican party just a few years later. And though he has frequently been celebrated as the "father of the constitution," his contributions to our founding document were subtler than many have supposed. This so-called "Madison problem" has occupied scholars for ages.Previous biographies have made sense of Madison's mixed record by breaking his life into discrete periods. But this approach falls short. Madison was, of course, a single person -- a brilliant thinker whose life's work was to forge a stronger Union around principles of limited government, individual rights, and above all, justice. As Jay Cost argues in this incisive new biography, we cannot comprehend Madison's legacy without understanding him as a working politician. We tend to focus on his accomplishments as a statesman and theorist -- but the same ideals that guided his thinking in these arenas shaped his practice of politics, where they were arguably more influential. Indeed, Madison was the original American politician. Whereas other founders split their time between politics and other vocations, Madison dedicated himself singularly to the work of politics and ultimately developed it into a distinctly American idiom.Bringing together the full range of his intellectual life, Cost shows us Madison as we've never seen him before: not as a man with uncertain opinions and inconstant views -- but as a coherent and unified thinker, a skilled strategist, and a key contributor to the ideals that have shaped our history. He was, in short, the first American politician.

LC Classification NumberE342.C67 2021