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jsimms435's review
4.0
This book had an incredible amount of information and I felt like I learned a lot about what Madison did politically. It seemed to at times get bogged down in details and was at times quite dry reading. I don't really feel like it did a very good job of personalizing Madison or even making him likeable. I think the author did a great job acknowledging and explaining some of the seemingly contradictory decisions that Madison made and acknowledged that Madison really did nothing in his power to end slavery. It is a great irony that he worked hard for equality between north and southern states, big and small states, the poor and the powerful, but then did nothing about slavery.
callieisreading's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely my least favorite of the presidential biographies to date. The focus was largely on his politics, his political writing, and the Federalist Papers, more than who he was as a person. An example is how the book talked about the burning of Washington DC during the War of 1812- almost no time was spent on this harrowing event where Madison and those who lived and worked with him had to flee at the last minute on horseback (a story I thoroughly enjoyed in other books). This was overall dull and lifeless.
jvanwago's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.75
I have been curious to learn more about James Madison since reading several other founding-father biographies. Jay Cost’s effort surprised, but did not disappoint me.
This book is lighter on biographical details and spends more time analyzing Madison’s politics. This approach makes sense. James Madison’s internal life was more exciting than his external.
Through this biography, I got a deeper exposure to revolutionary era politics than with other related books I have recently read. It helped me understand all of the players a little more. I particularly enjoyed learning about the War of 1812, of which I previously knew little.
Jay Cost makes the case that James Madison was mostly consistent throughout his political life, contrary to the prevailing analysis. I think that the author was mostly successful in this endeavor. However, sometimes this just came down to the fact that James Madison was a politician, and did what he could to maintain power for his faction. Most politicians can be counted as consistent at least in this respect.
Although Cost is obviously an admirer, he did not try to obfuscate Madison’s failures and weaknesses. Madison devised much of the framework for the republic, had an adequate congressional career, was a lackluster Secretary of the State, was a poor president for his first term and a half, and then redeemed himself in the last half of his second term.
I enjoyed Jay Cost’s writing style. It is difficult to make a book primarily about political philosophy as interesting as he did. Bravo. There were times I felt as if the writing style could have been a little more elevated and the use of clichés less preponderant.
This book is lighter on biographical details and spends more time analyzing Madison’s politics. This approach makes sense. James Madison’s internal life was more exciting than his external.
Through this biography, I got a deeper exposure to revolutionary era politics than with other related books I have recently read. It helped me understand all of the players a little more. I particularly enjoyed learning about the War of 1812, of which I previously knew little.
Jay Cost makes the case that James Madison was mostly consistent throughout his political life, contrary to the prevailing analysis. I think that the author was mostly successful in this endeavor. However, sometimes this just came down to the fact that James Madison was a politician, and did what he could to maintain power for his faction. Most politicians can be counted as consistent at least in this respect.
Although Cost is obviously an admirer, he did not try to obfuscate Madison’s failures and weaknesses. Madison devised much of the framework for the republic, had an adequate congressional career, was a lackluster Secretary of the State, was a poor president for his first term and a half, and then redeemed himself in the last half of his second term.
I enjoyed Jay Cost’s writing style. It is difficult to make a book primarily about political philosophy as interesting as he did. Bravo. There were times I felt as if the writing style could have been a little more elevated and the use of clichés less preponderant.
adkwriter15's review
The writing style just doesn't work for me. Cost might be an author I don't connect with since this is the second book of his I've (tried to) read.
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