"Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician he co-founded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk...

"Bettye Kearse -- a descendant of an enslaved cook and, according to oral tradition, President James Madison -- shares her family story and explores the issues of legacy, race, and the powerful consequences of telling the whole truth."-- For thousands of years, West African griots and griottes have recited the stories of their people. Because of this, Kearse learned she is a descendant of President James Madison and his slave-- and half-sister--...

In a time when America is desperately searching for leadership comes this inspiring story of James Madison's coming of age, providing incisive and original insight into the Founding Father who did the most but is known the least.
Michael Signer takes a fresh look at the life of our fourth president. His focus is on Madison before he turned thirty-six, the years in which he did his most enduring work: battling with Patrick Henry — the...

An introduction to the life of James Madison, a man of poor health who could not fight in the Revolutionary War but whose ideas formed the core of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and who became the nation's fourth president.

Chronicles the President's life, including his role in the battle for religious freedom in Virginia, his contributions to the adoption of the Constitution, and his performance as commander in chief during the War of 1812.

"It was 1790, and Thomas Jefferson and one of his dinner guests, James Madison, were determined to work out a political compromise critical to the nation's future with their third dinner companion (and political opponent), Alexander Hamilton. This gathering around Jefferson's celebrated table involved nothing less than the creation of the young nation's finances, foreign relations and the eventual location of its capital. The dinner's results? An...

"A lively and essential chronicle of the only consecutive trio of two-term presidencies of the same political party in American history, from the bestselling author of Thomas Jefferson - Revolutionary and James Madison. Before the consecutive two-term administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, there had only been one other trio of its type: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Kevin R. C. Gutzman's...

It's unimaginable today, even for a generation that saw the Twin Towers fall and the Pentagon attacked. It's unimaginable because in 1814 enemies didn't fly overhead, they marched through the streets; and for 26 hours in August, the British enemy marched through Washington, D.C. and set fire to government buildings, including the U.S. Capitol and the White House. Relying on first-hand accounts, historian Jane Hampton Cook weaves together several different...

By the time he became the fourth president of the United States in 1807, James Madison was already a legend. Although he was a short, slight man with a quiet voice, he had played an instrumental role in crafting the US Constitution. As president, he oversaw the country's first international conflict since the American Revolution when tensions with Great Britain led to the War of 1812. He worked to build unity among the states and to preserve many...

"Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, "Father of the Constitution," were two of the most important Founders of the United States as well as the closest of political allies. Yet historians have often seen a tension between the idealistic rhetoric of the Declaration and the more pedestrian language of the Constitution. Moreover, to some, the adoption of the Constitution represented a repudiation of the democratic...