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James Madison : America's first politician

Cost, Jay,,
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Book

First edition.

"How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history -- his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist papers and then helped to found the Republican party just a few years later. And though he has frequently been celebrated as the "father of the constitution," his contributions to ourfounding document were subtler than many have supposed. This so-called "Madison problem" has occupied scholars for ages. Previous biographies have made sense of Madison's mixed record by breaking his life into discrete periods. But this approach falls short. Madison was, of course, a single person -- a brilliant thinker whose life's work was to forge a stronger Union around principles of limited government, individual rights, and above all, justice. As Jay Cost argues in this incisive new biography, we cannot comprehend Madison's legacy without understanding him as a working politician. We tend to focus on his accomplishments as a statesman and theorist -- but the same ideals that guided his thinking in these arenas shaped his practice of politics, wherethey were arguably more influential. Indeed, Madison was the original American politician. Whereas other founders split their time between politics and other vocations, Madison dedicated himself singularly to the work of politics and ultimately developedit into a distinctly American idiom. Bringing together the full range of his intellectual life, Cost shows us Madison as we've never seen him before: not as a man with uncertain opinions and inconstant views -- but as a coherent and unified thinker, a skilled strategist, and a key contributor to the ideals that have shaped our history. He was, in short, the first American politician"--

Available copies

  • 8 of 8 copies available at Westchester Library System.

Current holds

0 current holds with 8 total copies.
Location Call Number /
Shelving Location		 Barcode Status /
Due Date
Bronxville Public Library B MADISON (Text)
Biography 		31004151822322
 Available
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Greenburgh Public Library B MADISON (Text)
Biography 		31009154900546
 Available
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Larchmont Public Library B MADISON (Text)
Biography 		31014153016856
 Available
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Mount Kisco Public Library B MADISON (Text)
Biography 		31017100349692
 Available
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Rye Free Reading Room LIVES - MADISON (Text)
Nonfiction 		31028153344324
 Available
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Scarsdale Public Library BIO MADISON (Text)
Biography 		31029154455895
 Available
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Yonkers Grinton I. Will Library B MADISON (Text)
Biography 		31035162509987
 Available
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Yonkers Riverfront Library B MADISON (Text)
Biography 		31035612065549
 Available
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