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The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President Spiral-Bound | October 31, 2017
Noah Feldman
$34.28
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The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President
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A surprisingly controversial look at the three distinct arcs of Madison’s career that explores how he redefined the United States in each one of these political “lives.”
James Madison is revered as the Father of the Constitution but rarely described as a radical. Yet Madison fundamentally changed the United States no less than three times. As a founding “genius” he designed the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights. As a “partisan” he co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party and transformed the face of American political rivalry. And as the first wartime president, Madison took the United States to war and won—inventing economic sanctions as a weapon along the way. Now, Noah Feldman—author of critically acclaimed books on the Supreme Court and the U.S. Constitution—presents this Founding Father in a brand new light with a new interpretation of his life, actions, and ideas.
Story Locale: Virginia, US; Washington, DC
James Madison is revered as the Father of the Constitution but rarely described as a radical. Yet Madison fundamentally changed the United States no less than three times. As a founding “genius” he designed the Constitution and wrote the Bill of Rights. As a “partisan” he co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party and transformed the face of American political rivalry. And as the first wartime president, Madison took the United States to war and won—inventing economic sanctions as a weapon along the way. Now, Noah Feldman—author of critically acclaimed books on the Supreme Court and the U.S. Constitution—presents this Founding Father in a brand new light with a new interpretation of his life, actions, and ideas.
Story Locale: Virginia, US; Washington, DC
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 800 pages
ISBN-10: 081299275X
Item Weight: 2.5 lbs
Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.6 x 9.5 inches
“Illuminating and absorbing…[Noah] Feldman’s deeply thoughtful study shows that the three identities of James Madison constituted one exceptional life, which effectively mirrored the evolving identity of the American republic in its most formative phase. In Feldman’s capable hands, Madison becomes the original embodiment of our ‘living Constitution.’”—The New York Times Book Review
“Grand…Feldman is a very accessible and quietly stylish writer, and his approach to his subject is a fresh one.”—Esquire
“Groundbreaking…The Three Lives of James Madison studies all the aspects of Madison’s complicated public career, as both the main author of the Constitution to the country’s first wartime president to the co-founder of the Democratic-Republican Party…. [Feldman is] uniformly excellent on Madison the political creature, which can’t help but resonate with the present day…. [A] superb account.”—The Christian Science Monitor
“James Madison was instrumental in framing the constitutional government that serves the American people today…. This is an insightful examination on how theories and ideals are applied and changed by real-life circumstances.”—Library Journal
“The most stimulating political book that I have read in as long as I can remember. Madison was a young genius obsessed with the idea of constitution-making and government structure and who, in his early twenties, started designing the American government. Almost every debate we’re having now about politics comes back in some way or another to Madison’s vision and the questions Madison was thinking about in the 1770s and 1780s…. Madison was way more important to our country than Hamilton was.”—Jacob Weisberg, editor in chief of The Slate Group and author of The Bush Tragedy
“Feldman brings a scholarly rigor and a gift for narrative to this impressive account of the sprawling—and often perplexing—life of James Madison.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
“Feldman gives us a rich portrait of our fourth president in all his many aspects: constitution maker, politician, partisan, friend, slaveholder, husband, president, and elder statesman. The result is a fresh, bold, and much-needed look at a pivotal figure in American and, therefore, world history.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
“Feldman, combining laudable scholarship with delightful writing, does a brilliant job of showing how Madison’s precise and reasoned mind, along with his personal friendships and rivalries, created our code as a nation.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci
“Feldman skillfully explains the evolving genius of Madison with precision and clarity. The result is a narrative both epic in scope and intimate in detail.”—David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, authors of Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President
“Grand…Feldman is a very accessible and quietly stylish writer, and his approach to his subject is a fresh one.”—Esquire
“Groundbreaking…The Three Lives of James Madison studies all the aspects of Madison’s complicated public career, as both the main author of the Constitution to the country’s first wartime president to the co-founder of the Democratic-Republican Party…. [Feldman is] uniformly excellent on Madison the political creature, which can’t help but resonate with the present day…. [A] superb account.”—The Christian Science Monitor
“James Madison was instrumental in framing the constitutional government that serves the American people today…. This is an insightful examination on how theories and ideals are applied and changed by real-life circumstances.”—Library Journal
“The most stimulating political book that I have read in as long as I can remember. Madison was a young genius obsessed with the idea of constitution-making and government structure and who, in his early twenties, started designing the American government. Almost every debate we’re having now about politics comes back in some way or another to Madison’s vision and the questions Madison was thinking about in the 1770s and 1780s…. Madison was way more important to our country than Hamilton was.”—Jacob Weisberg, editor in chief of The Slate Group and author of The Bush Tragedy
“Feldman brings a scholarly rigor and a gift for narrative to this impressive account of the sprawling—and often perplexing—life of James Madison.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
“Feldman gives us a rich portrait of our fourth president in all his many aspects: constitution maker, politician, partisan, friend, slaveholder, husband, president, and elder statesman. The result is a fresh, bold, and much-needed look at a pivotal figure in American and, therefore, world history.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
“Feldman, combining laudable scholarship with delightful writing, does a brilliant job of showing how Madison’s precise and reasoned mind, along with his personal friendships and rivalries, created our code as a nation.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci
“Feldman skillfully explains the evolving genius of Madison with precision and clarity. The result is a narrative both epic in scope and intimate in detail.”—David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, authors of Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President
NOAH FELDMAN is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies from Oxford University in 1994. From 1999 to 2002, he was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard. Before that he served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court (1998 to 1999) and to Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1997 to 1998). He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1997, serving as Book Reviews Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is the author of seven books: Cool War: The Future of Global Competition; Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices; The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State; Divided By God: America’s Church-State Problem and What We Should Do About It; What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation building; and After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy.
Author Residence: Cambridge, MA
Author Hometown: Boston, MA
Author Residence: Cambridge, MA
Author Hometown: Boston, MA