Jack Rakove reviews with some strong criticisms Richard Brookheiser's new book on Jame Madison. I have read Brookheiser's book on the Adams dynasty, which was pretty good.
Rakove is very close to this material, having written a biography of Madison in the past and now in the process of writing a book called A Politician Thinking: The Creative Mind of James Madison.
I liked and recommend most of Jack Rakove's earlier book Original Meanings. If one skips the first and last chapters — which are not really history but instead discussions of originalism (which are in my view problematic) — the book is a great work on the enactment of the Constitution.
Posted at 1:20 PM