"In this very human portrait of Madison and his role in the early, problem-fraught years of the new
republic, University of Virginia professor Rutland, editor of the Madison Papers, not only depicts him as a fervent
patriot, combining "erudition and common sense," but recounts his goals and frustrations, victories and defeats."
Publishers Weekly

This engaging and sympathetic biography provides a revealing portrait of a prolific human beingthe man Thomas
Jefferson called "the greatest man in the world." Throughout this remarkable book we see Madison the legislator,
writer, Secretary of State, President, elder statesman and, perhaps most importantly, as a man who believed most
implicitly in the mutual dependence of democracy and individual freedom. Madison was guided by this philosophy.
Accordingly, our constitutional guarantees of civil and religious liberty are, in many ways, his legacy.