Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America

“Students of American history often neglect [James] Madison,” writes historian and novelist Stewart (The Lincoln Deception) in an inauspicious start—it’s a strange, and arguably inaccurate, generalization—to an otherwise solid work on the great constitutional thinker and fourth president of the U.S. Hitting a surer stride, Stewart examines the man from a fresh angle, looking at the ways in which Madison’s associations with George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and his wife, Dolley, helped create the United States. It’s a gimmick of sorts, for Stewart has to justify yet another book on Madison in a period that has seen an explosion of biographies and studies of this founding father—as well as an increase in the number of institutions with Madison in their names (mostly on the political right, where Alexander Hamilton used to prevail). Nevertheless, Stewart illuminates much about the history-making relationships among these celebrated figures that in other books might remain obscured. Readers of history are in good hands with this dependable guide, which approaches its subject with a smooth, easygoing style. [em]Agent: Will Lippincott, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. (Feb.) [/em]