NRO readers presumably don’t need any help knowing that the latest book by Richard Brookhiser, whatever it happens to be, is well worth their time. But having just finished the superb new biography of James Madison he published a few months ago, I have to offer a word of praise anyway.
Madison, like a lot of Brookhiser’s subjects, is someone about whom so much has been written that it’s hard to imagine a new biography being genuinely new. But by telling his story through the lens of an appreciation for (indeed a love of) politics, warts and all, Brookhiser manages to tell a fresh and powerful story. We’re used to Madison the political thinker, and this book conveys the power of his ideas of course, but what it does better than anything I’ve read on the father of the Constitution is tell the story of Madison the political actor. And it tells it in a highly readable, crisp, lean way that only a historian with utter confidence in his grasp of his subject could manage. If you haven’t read it yet, do.
Madison, like a lot of Brookhiser’s subjects, is someone about whom so much has been written that it’s hard to imagine a new biography being genuinely new.
Oh boy, I disagree. I have three books on Madison, including RB's, because they're the only ones I could find that were worth owning. And none of them are incredibly detailed studies of the man, although I highly recommend RB's because he's such a good writer, historian, and is able to sum up the core parts of historical figures so well. Interestingly, there's a new major Madison bio coming out in a month or so, I'll be getting that one. Not sure of the author off-hand.
Flabbergasted and flummoxed - flumbergasted - that the Father of the Constitution has been given such little attention by biographers. If you go to archive.org you can find 4 volumes of Madison's writings in PDF book form for free. Honestly, I've consulted those the most. You could write entire books on Madison and various singular subjects - like the freedom of speech, for example - and to my knowledge no one has done that. It's a real shame.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusesorry, there are more than four volumes of Madison's writings on archive.org, plus a veritable $#!%-load of other incredible free old books on that site. I've downloaded about 400 of them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLoved Brookhiser's book on Hamilton. If this is even half as good, it'll be great.
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