Description: Engaging and accessible, A Politician Thinking offers new insight concerning a key constitutional thinker and the foundations of the American constitutional system. Having a more thorough understanding of how Madison solved the problems presented in the formation of that system, we better grasp a unique moment of political innovation.
Brief description: Jack N. Rakove is William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and author of James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution.
Review Quotes: "No one knows more about James Madison than Jack Rakove, and in this lucid and beautifully written book, he explores not only Madison's political and constitutional theories but, more important, the way in which this creative politician and founder went about formulating those theories. A remarkable achievement."--Gordon S. Wood, author of Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815