A review by callieisreading
James Madison: America's First Politician by Jay Cost

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.