Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating
Review: A fascinating portrait of one of the "forgotten founders," Garry Wills's "James Madison" does everything the author sets out to do, providing a personal and a political biography in a brief format. In a mere 160 pages, Wills limns an insightful portrait of Madison as a man, a Virginian, a drafter of the Constitution, a legislator, and as a president.
Rating:
Summary: Insights into the Madison presidency
Review: Although it is nominally a biography of James Madison, this brief book is actually an examination of Madison's presidency. Wills explores the seeming contradictions between the brilliant Madison responsible for the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the less-than-impressive president.Wills shows that there is less of a contradiction than there seems to be. The flaws that hurt Madison as a president were actually around much earlier, especially his inability to function well as an executive. Madison was much more a behind-the-scenes person, quite adept in committees or legislative situations, but not as able outside them. As a biography, this book is rather short and sparse, but by focusing on one portion of Madison's life - the portion which he does not receive great acclaim for - Wills is still able to provide a lot of detail as he analyzes and explains the fourth presidency.
Rating:
Summary: Insights into the Madison presidency
Review: Although it is nominally a biography of James Madison, this brief book is actually an examination of Madison's presidency. Wills explores the seeming contradictions between the brilliant Madison responsible for the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the less-than-impressive president. Wills shows that there is less of a contradiction than there seems to be. The flaws that hurt Madison as a president were actually around much earlier, especially his inability to function well as an executive. Madison was much more a behind-the-scenes person, quite adept in committees or legislative situations, but not as able outside them. As a biography, this book is rather short and sparse, but by focusing on one portion of Madison's life - the portion which he does not receive great acclaim for - Wills is still able to provide a lot of detail as he analyzes and explains the fourth presidency.
Rating: 
Summary: Obsessively Interested in Gov, but a Poor Practitioner
Review: As were many of the leading figures of the American Revolutionary period, James Madison was a Virginia aristocrat drawn to public service, but with a special interest in the structure of government. Madison was small in stature, somewhat sickly, and not particularly socially adept. He preferred to make his influence felt by operating in the background of legislative halls. His inability to judge and lead men was part of the reason that his presidency reeked of ineptitude.
The author shows Madison at his intellectual best in his advocacy of the separation of church and state and his profound work in orchestrating the Constitutional Convention and the construction of the document. But it is rather evident that Madison exhibited ideological tendencies in addition to his studied rationality. He shifted rather dramatically from extolling a strong central state with the ability to veto state legislation to the republican position of Jefferson in the span of a few years. While president his Anti-Federalist and anti-British biases constantly led him down the wrong path. His convoluted dealings with Britain and France, his fascination with embargos, and his inability to select competent Cabinet officers and emissaries led unnecessarily to the War of 1812. His policies regarding the raising of an army, the selection of generals, the use of naval power, the financing of the war effort, and an obsession with invading Canada could have easily led to Britain defeating the US.
Despite the obvious shortcomings of Madison's presidency, the author is inclined to rate Madison rather highly as a leading figure of the Revolution. But there are chinks in that belief. The document that Madison receives most credit for has had problems. The Constitution in many ways rolled back the republicanism of the Revolution. It's potential for maintaining gridlock is unmistakable. The ability of elites of one persuasion or the other to dominate government has been evident since 1789.
The book is brief. There is no coverage of the lead up to Madison being elected president in 1808. One wonders why he even took that step. He was not the right man for the job. Perhaps the brevity of the book does not give a sufficiently balanced presentation to appreciate Madison. Many readers will wonder how we survived Madison's presidency. It makes one think of the current presidency in terms of its choices of personnel, policies, agendas, and ideological tendencies.
Rating:
Summary: Concise summary
Review: Garry Willis provides a short, but concise summary of the administration of James Madison. He gives an overview of problems that plagued James Madison as president. Even though Madison was extremely effective at the several Constitutional conventions he attended and was an excellent legislator, being the executive proved to be a more difficult task than Madison could effectively handle. The one shortcoming, was that at the end of book Willis notes that the Madison presidency experienced a surge in popularity without really delving into the reasons as to why this occured. This surge according to Willis prevents historians from rating Madison a failed president or for that matter an average president. There are some implications as to why this occured, but a more direct address of the issue would have been beneficial. All in all, however, Willis' accounting of the Madison presidency is a good overview into the administration of this president.
Rating:
Summary: Concise summary
Review: Garry Willis provides a short, but concise summary of the administration of James Madison. He gives an overview of problems that plagued James Madison as president. Even though Madison was extremely effective at the several Constitutional conventions he attended and was an excellent legislator, being the executive proved to be a more difficult task than Madison could effectively handle. The one shortcoming, was that at the end of book Willis notes that the Madison presidency experienced a surge in popularity without really delving into the reasons as to why this occured. This surge according to Willis prevents historians from rating Madison a failed president or for that matter an average president. There are some implications as to why this occured, but a more direct address of the issue would have been beneficial. All in all, however, Willis' accounting of the Madison presidency is a good overview into the administration of this president.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth a read
Review: Garry Wills has done a solid job with this entry in the American Presidents series. He focuses on one simple question: Why was Madison not a great president? Wills, after detailing Madison's pre-presidential achievements, examines his two terms in office with an eye toward certain types of mistakes that Madison made again and again. His research is outstanding; his writing solid.
Rating:
Summary: A Densely Packed but Very Readable Biography
Review: I have been a fan of Wills writing since I was a kid and read his little booklet, Elias and Eliseus, in the Catholic Know Your Bible Series, written around 1960. Wills' biography of James Madison manages to pack a great deal of information into 160 pages and does so in a coherent and very readable manner. One can at times get bogged down in the details but Wills provides an excellent conclusion, and useful summaries of various factors, groups, etc. throughout the book. He also blows away several myths such as future presiden William Henry Harrison's "great victory" at Tippecanoe which was pyhrric at best and even the notion that we won the War of 1812 is questionable--the truth was much more ambiguous. Nevertheless,, Madison's War was a watershed event that unified Republican factions and moved the American Republic past old, Federalist party alignments and some of the original Federalist and Jeffersonian Republican concerns. Five of the war's military leaders became U.S. presidents. The miniscule navy, funded during the Federalist phase of Washington and Adams, beat the mighty British in several important battles because of the superiority of American naval engineering and the boldnesss and military genius of its young naval commanders who are contrasted with the much older army and militia leaders who were notable, especially in the early phase of the war for their corruption, incompetence and timidity. One U.S.commander wasted valuable time worrying whether he could use an old rag to surrender or if he should try to obtain a cleaner, whiter one. Bolder and more effective army officers such as Andrew Jackson later emerged. In the end, England grew weary of its war with us; we learned lessons about the need for a strong coordinated executive branch; Madison made many mistakes, as did several of his abysmal cabinet appointments, and yet he steered us through the war and managed to prove the workability of the Constitution that he had authored. Wills also gives us an appreciation of the fragility of the Union and the very real possibility of the secession of New England which did not suppport the war. Unlike the war in Vietnam, America came out of the War of 1812, itching for new military adventures. Wills gives us othe fascinating details such as Madison's desire to annex Cuba and Canada, his obsession with the wrongheaded tactic of embargo, his naivete that caused him to be duped by Napoleon, his deliberat attempts to falsify his memoirs, his great contributions to the Washington and Jefferson presidencies, his major contribution to the concept of separation of church and state which current Christian fundamentalists would do well to familiarize themselves with. Other little known facts emerge in Wills' account of the times such as England's 18th century war atrocity against Denmark, wiping out Copenhagen. Excellent book, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Densely Packed but Very Readable Biography
Review: I have been a fan of Wills writing since I was a kid and read his little booklet, Elias and Eliseus, in the Catholic Know Your Bible Series, written around 1960. Wills' biography of James Madison manages to pack a great deal of information into 160 pages and does so in a coherent and very readable manner. One can at times get bogged down in the details but Wills provides an excellent conclusion, and useful summaries of various factors, groups, etc. throughout the book. He also blows away several myths such as future presiden William Henry Harrison's "great victory" at Tippecanoe which was pyhrric at best and even the notion that we won the War of 1812 is questionable--the truth was much more ambiguous. Nevertheless,, Madison's War was a watershed event that unified Republican factions and moved the American Republic past old, Federalist party alignments and some of the original Federalist and Jeffersonian Republican concerns. Five of the war's military leaders became U.S. presidents. The miniscule navy, funded during the Federalist phase of Washington and Adams, beat the mighty British in several important battles because of the superiority of American naval engineering and the boldnesss and military genius of its young naval commanders who are contrasted with the much older army and militia leaders who were notable, especially in the early phase of the war for their corruption, incompetence and timidity. One U.S.commander wasted valuable time worrying whether he could use an old rag to surrender or if he should try to obtain a cleaner, whiter one. Bolder and more effective army officers such as Andrew Jackson later emerged. In the end, England grew weary of its war with us; we learned lessons about the need for a strong coordinated executive branch; Madison made many mistakes, as did several of his abysmal cabinet appointments, and yet he steered us through the war and managed to prove the workability of the Constitution that he had authored. Wills also gives us an appreciation of the fragility of the Union and the very real possibility of the secession of New England which did not suppport the war. Unlike the war in Vietnam, America came out of the War of 1812, itching for new military adventures. Wills gives us othe fascinating details such as Madison's desire to annex Cuba and Canada, his obsession with the wrongheaded tactic of embargo, his naivete that caused him to be duped by Napoleon, his deliberat attempts to falsify his memoirs, his great contributions to the Washington and Jefferson presidencies, his major contribution to the concept of separation of church and state which current Christian fundamentalists would do well to familiarize themselves with. Other little known facts emerge in Wills' account of the times such as England's 18th century war atrocity against Denmark, wiping out Copenhagen. Excellent book, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: James Madison
Review: James Madison by Garry Wills is a compact, lucid, and authoritative work on James Madison with a primary focus on Madison's two terms as the fourth President of the United States. This volume offers a distillation of Madison's character as well as his career along with the events that worked to hone Madison the man. James Madison was a man of great promise, intellect and skills, but leadership was not one of his greatest of qualities. He was easily duped at times and was rather naive as to what really needed to be done. He waged the first war under the Constitution, but his lack of follow through and short sightedness were just part of his fecklessness. Madison was a man of unfortunate circumstances, some of his own making, others outside his expertise, while he was President. Madison was the framer of the Constitution... it's primary author, and was a formidable political figure with rather keen foresight to matters of legislature and calculating collaborator, but as a leader he just did not have the right stuff to confront the hard, practical issues. This book gets right to the subject with a good and easily readable narritive. Significantly diverse and tells a fascinating tale. We see wisdom, pettiness, deceit, turmoil and cunning in Madison. Also, a possession of vison of an ideal and an imposition of a leader in peril with fralties and flaws. Circumstances, temperment and errors all play into the character of Madison, but this was not the sole reasons for Madison's poor performance... partly yes, but the nations situation in 1809 was to be the most determinant. The author tells us what went wrong/right while Madison was in office, but his performance is a balance of virtures and faults. I found this book to be a fast read and very concise with cogent material and well founded in documentation. An excellent work about the Madison Presidency as he tries to overcome and adjust his views with respect to the Constitution and the relationship of the Executive branch of our government.
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