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American history, James Madison, Montpelier, Orange County VA, presidential biographies, Presidents, Ralph Ketcham
Having taken two months to work through my collection of Thomas Jefferson biographies, it’s time to turn to our fourth president: James Madison.
As we all know (or so the sign welcoming us to Orange County, VA informs us), James Madison is commonly known as the “Father of the US Constitution.”
Despite this impressive legacy, however, there are few great, or even popular, biographies of this early president and influential leader. My library currently includes just three (but almost four) books on Madison.
The oldest (and the book I’m starting with) is the 1971 classic by Ralph Ketcham (“James Madison: A Biography”). Anyone who has ever read a Madison biography seems to have read this book. I’m about a quarter of the way into it now. Reviews are solid but not spectacular, but only time and more progress will help me render my own verdict.
Next up is “Madison and Jefferson” by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg, published in 2010. Rather than being a strict biography, this is more a tale of the extraordinary friendship and partnership between these two leading historical figures. Nonetheless, I hope to learn as much from it as I would an ordinary-course biography. I almost began the Madison presidency with this book but opted to start with an “old classic” instead.
Next, and currently hostage to the U.S. mail, is Richard Brookhiser’s 2011 biography “James Madison”. Reviews are underwhelming, but this will be my first book by Brookhiser so I decided to give it a shot. Also, I live “next door” to Madison’s home county (the photo above required about a six minute drive from my house) so I feel obliged to devote more than four inches of shelf space to his presidency.
Last is Kevin Gutzman’s 2012 “James Madison and the Making of America”. Here, too, reviews suggest something other than a gripping thriller, but I’m going to give it a try anyway. I (usually) love an underdog…
It is worth pointing out that James Madison’s Montpelier is just a thirty-minute drive from my house, so of course I have not yet visited. I’ve been to the catacombs in Paris, driven across the northern-most bridge in the world, and done a multitude of even more ordinary “touristy” things. But I’ve still not visited Monticello or Montpelier despite their proximity to my home. This will change shortly. Hopefully. Stay tuned.
My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies 
The only one of these I’ve read is Gutzman’s “James Madison and the Making of America” and ‘underwhelming’ was my take on it too. Being so into Jefferson I’m really surprised you have not found time to visit Monticello. I have not done so either but living in San Francisco at least I’ve got an excuse 🙂
For some reason I never focused on visiting until I got into the Jefferson bios. By then spring was upon us and I could easily imagine thousands of tourists flocking every weekend…to Monticello. I’ll probably go some rainy Tuesday when it’s bound to be quiet
Forgive me for dropping these monumental comments on your site, but I feel that you can most definitely relate to me as I finish up each book of the Presidents! Since you hadn’t listed Lynne Cheney’s “Madison: A Life Reconsidered” I figured I would just leave my comment/thoughts about it on your overall Madison post here. (It was an acquisition of opportunity, seeing as the local library had this one)
Fascinating to read about James Madison and how influential he was on the drafting of the Constitution. From his essays defending it in The Federalist alongside Hamilton and John Jay and his orations on the floor against Patrick Henry (what a character THAT guy was!), I was absolutely sucked in by the difficulties he faced in convincing people of the efficacy of a central government and the need for a good framework.
Patrick Henry’s constant over-dramatic bloviating sounds like it would have been absolutely aggravating to sit through, and the anecdote about the note-taker at the Constitutional Convention giving up on a full transcription and just writing “Mr Henry is upset again” (paraphrased) was pretty funny in a way. His initial argument, right out of the gate, about “Why did we say ‘we the people’ instead of ‘we the states’?” seems silly beyond belief but it’s interesting to look at the conversations and viewpoints through our current state of thinking, years later. Later on in the book, the introduction of John Randolph as another blow-hard was interesting.
His relationship with Thomas Jefferson provided some interest too. I knew from my previous POTUS books that Jefferson was an avid collector of data and incessant note-taker but the fact that he made a pedometer and sent it to Madison was pretty interesting. Turns out those two were doing Fitbit Step Challenges before anyone else, ha ha. To find his behind-the-scenes meddling must have hurt Madison, but in the end to have Jefferson come around (or at least claim to) and see the value of the Constitution may have given him the much needed validation of a friend.
In addition to the meddling, it was interesting to see Jefferson’s idea of a “new government and laws” every 19 years get digested and reviewed by Madison. The Jefferson bio I read only touched on the idea slightly, but this book gave a little bit more exposition to the conversation regarding this between the two.
The divisiveness within Madison’s Cabinet once he became President was bad enough that the author made a point to bring it up. I would imagine that there is some in every Cabinet, but I still found that interesting. Anyway, I’m going to get a couple other non-Presidential books in before I get back to Monroe. Have a great week!
-Dave
Thanks – I don’t mind “monumental” comments! Sadly, Lynne’s Cheney’s biography was published the year after I finished Madison. Although I was skeptical about whether it would be worth reading (I’m always a little skeptical when a hard-core politician or his/her spouse decides to write a presidential biography) I’ve heard from a number of people that it’s solid – or better – so it’s on my follow-up list and already sitting in my Madison collection waiting to be read!
Good luck with your “other” books before you get to Monroe. Can’t wait to see what you read of JM and what you think-
Hi Steve,
I’m working my way through the presidents as well, on number 10 now. I wanted to comment because I read Lynne Cheney’s book as well. I admit being a bit leery about the book because of her political connection, and was watching for bias or slant.
But, I must say that I found the book well written, well researched, and very readable. I definitely came away with a much better sense of Madison as a man. I also thought Ms. Cheney did a good job staying away from political bias.
My only critique would be that I found on too many occasions a willingness on her part to ‘imagine’ what Madison might be doing in a certain situation where there was insufficient evidence as to what actually occurred. I understand there’s a place for that, some of the time, to fill in gaps, as well as allow the author to express his/her opinions on the subject. It just seemed that she did that a bit too much for my liking.
Overall though, a solid book, with enough substance to make it a real biography.
Thank you for your site, you’ve inspired me to work through ALL the presidents. I found your site a few months ago while searching for presidential biographies, and it’s a godsend! I look to your site for inspiration, your book reviews, and a reminder that I’m not nuts for taking on this challenge. This undertaking so far is more enjoyable than I imagined, although my wife thinks I’m a bit crazy.
Keep up the great work, I love your site.
-Len
Len, thanks for your note and I also initially harbored a great deal of suspicion about Lynne Cheney’s biography. Fortunately, a number of people have told me essentially the same about her book – that it is articulate, thoughtful and relatively free of bias, and on that basis it is one of the ten presidential bios I intended to get to “first” once I start on my “follow-up” list.
My wife also thinks I’m crazy and, given my longevity with this site, in a few months we will be celebrating our fifth anniversary of her thinking I’m out of my mind 🙂
I’m far from finished, but I’ve read quite a bit of “James Madison” by Garry Wills. It’s part of “The American Presidents” series.
So far, I find it to be awful. All Mr. Wills does is bash Madison throughout, at one point, comparing Madison to Napoleon Bonaparte declaring that they were both “embarrassments” to their respective nations.
The book should have been titled “Why Garry Wills hates James Madison”