Becoming Madison, Michael Signer
Becoming Madison, Michael Signer
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Becoming Madison
The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father

Author: Michael Signer

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 12 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/30/2015

Synopsis

In Becoming Madison, Michael Signer takes a fresh look at the life of our fourth president. His focus is on Madison before he turned thirty-six, the years in which he did his most enduring work: battling with Patrick Henry—the most charismatic politician in revolutionary America, whose political philosophy and ruthless tactics eerily foreshadowed those of today's Tea Party—over religious freedom; introducing his framework for a strong central government; becoming the intellectual godfather of the Constitution; and providing a crucial role at Virginia's convention to ratify the Constitution in 1788, when the nation's future hung in the balance.



Signer's young James Madison is a role model for leaders today: a man who overcame daunting personal issues (including crippling anxiety attacks) to battle an entrenched and vicious status quo. His analysis of "Madison's Method," the means by which Madison systematically destroyed dangerous ideas and left in their stead an enduring and positive vision for the United States, is wholly original and uniquely relevant today.

About Michael Signer

Michael Signer is an author, advocate, political theorist, and attorney. He has taught political theory, leadership, and governance at the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the University of California. Signer is the author of Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New Republic, and USA Today. He lives with his wife and twin boys in Virginia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Beverlee on November 18, 2017

This biography took a different view of Madison than that of Lynn Cheney and Garry Wills, which I found enlightening. Signer focuses on Madison's work on the Constitution, including his making a case for ratification in Virginia. Madison's "method" of arguing and his apparent lack of interest in fam......more

Goodreads review by Joel on November 17, 2020

Interesting, but overtly biased.......more

Goodreads review by Jordan on November 07, 2017

2 Stars is probably harsh, but just because I wanted the book to be better does not make it so. I am firmly in the camp that the general mistreatment of Madison and his political thought over the last 150 years of political development has been criminally bad, but the praise in this book provides mo......more

Goodreads review by Clare on April 15, 2015

Signer's Becoming Madison excels by focusing in on this oft-forgotten founding father as a young man. Filled with both his greatest personal struggles and most lasting political accomplishments, this time period in Madison's life seems overdue for this kind of book and Signer certainly does it justi......more

Goodreads review by John Ryan on December 31, 2023

We all hear the names of our founding fathers of our nation – Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry, many others. Often we forget many of these men were young, driven, and had their own personal agendas. Many didn’t get along with one another and used nasty political tactics to get what they......more

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