“James Madison” is Richard Brookhiser’s 2011 biography of our fourth president, and is the most recent of his dozen or so books.  Brookhiser’s first biography, on George Washington, was published in 1996.  Since then has written about Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris and William F. Buckley Jr., among others.  Brookhiser is currently a senior editor at National Review.

At only 250 pages of text, “James Madison” has been described by some as merely a “whirlwind” tour of Madison’s life, a barebones biography barely capable of describing this member of the Virginia Dynasty of presidents.  Based on such reflections, I was braced for disappointment as I began reading Brookhiser’s biography. But instead, I was delightfully surprised by what I found.

Without a doubt, “James Madison” is far from a comprehensive, penetrating treatise; it will not soon overtake Ketcham’s book as the “go to” biography on Madison.  But not everyone is willing or able to…

– Click here for the full review at BestPresidentialBios.com –