James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (Library of American Biography Series) (3rd Edition)

Locale Selector - Click for default
|

ttStore Home
Show Featured Items

James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (Library of American Biography Series) (3rd Edition)

Author(s):

Jack Rakove

Label: Longman
Publisher(s):

Longman

Studio: Longman
Manufacturer: Longman
Binding: Paperback
List Price: $20.67
Our Price: $16.50
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In this biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Rakove examines the life and legacy of James Madison, one of the founding fathers of the United States.

Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each of the titles in the Library of American Biography Series focuses on a figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course of American history and national life. In addition, each biography relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and developments of the times.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful!

Rakove gives the reader a concise & readable account of the life of this central figure of the American founding. A breeze to read, but doesn't shortchange the reader in terms of insight & rigor. The capstone chapter "The Legacy of the Founder" is alone worth the price of the whole volume. For those interested in the creation of the Constitution, I would suggest reading this book after one of the shorter histories of the Constitutional Convention (I prefer Berkin's "A Brilliant Solution", but there are several very good ones out there), then turning to Rakove's magnificent "Original Meanings".

I need an advil

I had to read this for a college course. Now, I consider myself a well-read person. I have read Tolstoy, I have read Thackery. Neither of them made me want to smash my head against my desk to end the misery like this book did. If you are a die-hard James Madison fan, you just might enjoy this book. Otherwise, you just might end up like me, i.e. with a great need for headache medicine and possibly a match.

Biography of a Man and his Ideas

This short little book chronicles two things, though in sketches only: the life of James Madison and the story of his ideas. With this book Rakove does and excellent job of capturing both.

Rakove follows Madison through his service to the Virginia House, where he wrote a landmark bill separating church from state in his home state. After that we follow Madison to the Continental Congress and then the U.S. congress, where he takes the lead in drafting what would become the United States Constitution. Rakove then gives a tour of Madison's role in the early years of the Federal government, in the House and then as secretary of state and then president. While these were certainly tumultuous years, especially during the War of 1812, where there was legitimate concern about the survival of the Union, Madison was able to weather it all while holding close to his political principles.

These principles included an attachment to individual and minority rights and the preservation of the Federal Union above all. This little book gives and excellent depiction of those principles in action. I highly recommend it.

Fine book impossibly packaged

I never thought I would write something like this, but it must be said. I buy hundreds of books a year and this work was unique. A fine book fatally flawed in its physical execution, and monumentally overpriced. Rakov, Amazon, and publishers take note. This shameful 'product' might have been acceptable even with its extravagent price were it not for the disgraceful binding that ran the text into the tightly bound spine. Books are meant to read, not wrestled. I had to return my copy because of this bit of publishing garbage - which cost me the postage. Shame on you all.

A very well-written short biography of Madison

Initially, I had reservations about reading such a short book on such a complex and important figure as James Madison. Indeed, there are aspects of Madison's life that Rakove should have written more, particularly Madison's personal life and his famous, life-of-the-party wife, Dolly.

On the other hand, the book spends a lot of time on Madison's role during the Revolution and his role in creating the Constitution. Writing about these important subjects is potentially very difficult, very tedious and complex. And to his credit, Rakove does a good job making the pages easy to read and thoughtful.

The section on the War of 1812, which was conducted while Madison was president and almost ruined the country, was rivetting. I imagine a longer book would have spent even more time on this subject, not to take anything away from Rakove's coverage.

Ideally, Madison should be covered in a much more substantial book, like Ketcham's, but the reviews of Ketcham's book weren't all that good from Amazon readers, so I chose Rakove's book. It so happens, that hidden in the middle of a large list of sources at the end of his book, Rakove mentions that the Ketcham book is the best single volume work on Madison.

Additionaly, a docent at Mountpelier left a review of Ketcham's book saying that it is excellent. It is heavily used and bookmarked at Montpelier...so the Ketcham book is probably OK to read, if you want a more substantial read. It may even be excellent.

Lastly, Rakove's book was easy to read as a whole and relatively "complete". More importantly, even though some subjects could have been fleshed out more, the most important subjects were covered well. This wasn't a shallow book. There was a lot of primary source material that was very well integrated. It is a very well-written and researched book.

4 and 1/2 stars is probably more like it, but we'll round up to 5 based on quality.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT SOME OF THE CONTENT THAT WE MAKE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THIS APPLICATION COMES FROM AMAZON WEB SERVICES. ALL SUCH CONTENT IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS." THIS CONTENT AND YOUR USE OF IT ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND/OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
Powered by PNAmazon © 2003-2007 ttgapers.com