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    James Madison and the Making of America
    James Madison and the Making of America
    James Madison and the Making of America
    Audiobook15 hours

    James Madison and the Making of America

    Written by Kevin R. C. Gutzman

    Narrated by Arthur Morey

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    About this audiobook

    In James Madison and the Making of America, historian Kevin
    Gutzman looks beyond the way James Madison is traditionally seen-as
    "The Father of the Constitution"-to find a more complex and sometimes
    contradictory portrait of this influential Founding Father and the ways
    in which he influenced the spirit of today's United States. Instead of
    an idealized portrait of Madison, Gutzman treats listeners to the
    flesh-and-blood story of a man who often performed his founding deeds in
    spite of himself: Madison's fame rests on his participation in the
    writing of The Federalist Papers and his role in drafting the
    Bill of Rights and Constitution.Today, his contribution to those
    documents is largely misunderstood. Madison thought that the Bill of Rights
    was unnecessary and insisted that it not be included in the
    Constitution, a document he found entirely inadequate and predicted
    would soon fail. He helped to create the first American political
    party, the first party to call itself "Republican", but only after he
    had argued that political parties, in general, were harmful. Madison
    served as Secretary of State and then as President during the early
    years of the United States and the War of 1812; however, the American
    foreign policy he implemented in 1801-1817 ultimately resulted in the
    British burning down the Capitol and the White House.In so many ways,
    the contradictions both in Madison's thinking and in the way he governed
    foreshadowed the conflicted state of our Union now. His greatest
    legacy-the disestablishment of Virginia's state church and adoption of
    the libertarian Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom-is often omitted
    from discussion of his career. Yet, understanding the way in which
    Madison saw the relationship between the church and state is key to
    understanding the real man. Kevin Gutzman's James Madison and the Making of America promises to become the standard biography of our fourth President.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 27, 2012
    ISBN9781452676340

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    Reviews for James Madison and the Making of America

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    • 4/5
      James Madison was a genius. He was the main crafter of the United States Constitution and its main defender/expositor in the Federalist Papers. He saw human and governmental problems more deeply than anyone else in his era. We have him to thank for our world's embrace of democracy and self-government.

      Nonetheless, he might not succeed as a politician in the television era. He was small and had a soft voice. He had aristocratic tendencies. He was exceedingly bookish. As such, his biography focuses on the traits of the mind instead of activities. Whereas most of the Founding Fathers had exciting lives, Madison lived as an idealistic and bookish man. His biography then reads more like a ledger of government than like an exciting life.

      Gutzman does a decent job of this. Almost all of the tedium is due to Madison's tediousness and not the author's weaknesses. It's fun to swap reasons with Madison. It's fun to reflect how American history has gone back-and-forth on the principles which governed Madison's life. His life was governed by a cerebral approach, and this book makes his logic clear.
    • 3/5
      If you look for James Madison biography - like I was - it is not the one. It rather summarizes Madison's writings and speeches over the years. Philadelphia convention takes especially large space. It does seem somewhat weird: this book is not coherent and complete enough to consider it an academic work on Madison's writings and at the same time it's totally irrelevant as a bio (just pieces of information here and there). I did find some interesting information but overall I don't believe this book achieved its goals - whatever they were.
    • 4/5
      Ask average persons on the street who is the most revered founding father and they'll likely say "Washington" or "Jefferson". Fair enough: Washington for his guiding example of leadership (more for what he could have done but didn't) and Jefferson for his lofty political ideals. But, if you want to appreciate the practical founding architect of our political model you must know Madison. Gutzman's gives us a very close look at Madison's brilliant work toward the establishment of the nation. We have lost our awareness of how improbable was the outcome the constitution sought to create. How unlikely it was that a loose conglomeration of states with their own political cultures, conflicting economic interests and deep suspicion of centralized power could form a unified national government with substantive power to govern. Thanks to Madison's detailed recordings of the constitutional convention's proceedings (and this while he was actively participating in the debates) we get deep insights into how difficult the issues were to resolve. Gutzman gives us the deliberations of the delegates from a nearly daily perspective.The difficulty of reaching compromise points to the complexity of finding the right balance of power between the states and the national government, between the branches of the national government, between the power of the majority v. protecting minorities and the strugggle to balance the role of the "democracy" v. "republicianism" governed by the elite. We are also reminded through Gutzman's history of the convention and the advocacy for its adoption that followed that the thorny issues were not completely resolved. The relationship between the powers of the national government and the states is still at issue as is the balance between individual liberty and collective power of government. Madison's worry about the destructive impact of "factions" is as pertinent today as it was in the late 1700's -- just turn on the nightly news!Gutzman's book is well worth the read. It is not a psychological, personality oriented portrait of Madison, but it does provide an invaluable guide to the conceptual framework and deep challenges of forming and sustaining a lasting political compact.