Reviews

"An excellent study covering the whole of Madison's thought and framed by democratic yearnings for a communitarian America."--Choice"Highly readable as well as deliberately provocative and controversial."--Review of Politics"Essential, provocative, splendidly written, disturbing, and intellectually brilliant reading."--Perspectives on Political Science"This is an interesting and well-written book worth of careful consideration by students of political theory and American history."--American Political Science Review"This learned, engaging, and stimulating book has much to offer a wide range of readers."--Journal of American History"Matthews has written a provocative work that takes on much recent scholarship and has done it extremely well."--Religious Studies Review

"Highly opinionated, iconoclastic, controversial, and immensely imaginative. A provocative and deeply stimulating reading of Madison that deserves to be part of the never-ending conversation Americans have about the meaning of America."--Isaac Kramnick, author of Republicanism and Bourgeois Radicalism: Political Ideology in Late Eighteenth-Century England and America"Outstanding. Certainly the most systematic, comprehensive, and penetrating analysis of Madison's political thought, the volume is engagingly written, tightly argued, and persuasive in its interpretations."--Jack P. Greene, author of The Intellectual Construction of America and editor of the Encyclopedia of American Political History"A controversial and compelling case for Madison's consistent liberalism. Deserves a prominent place on the bookshelf of anyone who takes seriously the study of American political thought."--Michael Lienesch, author of New Order of the Ages"This book will make a major splash among both historians and political scientists and should have substantial appeal to the general reading public. Its most significant achievement is the discovery and explication of the themes that make Madison consistent despite his many changes of position over a long and varied public career."--Forrest McDonald, author of Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution