A review by livruther
The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President by Noah Feldman

informative slow-paced

3.5

I learned a little bit, but not an extraordinary amount. I liked the writing, but it was not life-changing. I do think that it was definitely too long. Also, in my opinion, the author did not handle the fact that Madison was an enslaver particularly well. Like, when he did mention it, he either glossed over it or made a point to emphasize how well Madison treated his enslaved people. Um, good for him for not being quite as much as a POS as some of his contemporaries, I guess? It just feels like such a weird and icky thing to compliment him on. Like, no matter how "well" he treated them, he still thought of them as property, even though he KNEW IT WAS WRONG. That did not take up very much of the book, but when it was mentioned, it irritated me. The conclusion tried to make up for it, but it did not quite do it for me. Overall, it lowered my opinion of James Madison, even though I think the goal was to do the opposite. I have always thought of Madison as a fairly rational and levelheaded president, but this book definitely revealed that he could be just as underhanded and unprofessional as so many other politicians have been throughout history. Oh well, I should have known better than to expect a president to be a good person. That almost never happens.