Madison’s gift -five
partnerships that built America by David O Stewart
this one is a gem folks. Published in 2015 you put the title
and author on your search engineAnd can get the book for five bucks. I found mine for two bucks at
the goodwill in Rochester Minnesota also if you have a big enough local library
they might have it still for free.
In a popularity and awareness ranking of the well-known names of the founding fathers of our Republic James Madison would likely be at the bottom of the list. He was quite short bald and certainly not the tall Studley athletic military man that George Washington was. Nor a powerful orator and debater Like Hamilton . It was Jefferson the brilliant, writer politician and who wrote the Declaration of Independence. The fourth partner was another military man, friend and sometime opponent James Monroe who had Madison’s back when a defenseless, broke & not very united group of states took on the mighty English Monarchy for a second time. Madison was president and when the English destroyed the new American capital city including White House and burned the new capital building down to the ground in the war of 1812. In the history texts on that war Madison gets much of the blame for all the defeats as he was not much of a military leader but instead it was his late to marry widowed Dolly Todd who gets the positive notice. Nor amazing persona like his wife Dolly lit up everyone came into her presence and could influence crowds of people . IA beautiful talented and amazing woman the author gives Dolly Madison In an extra chapter His account of her partnership and support of James
In a nutshell what made this small modest not very
visible man so important? It was his brain and his ability to pair
with the more Outgoing men and one woman aforementioned To discuss advise suggest and help them
use their skills and his insights and organize a bunch of bickering former
colonies/states into the only Republic I. E. Democracy existing at that time in
a world run by kings and queens. To Find A Republic one would have to go back to
that of Rome and for democracy to the ancient Greeks in Athens.
As I write this introduction and review I wondered to
myself what it was that brought me to pluck this particular history book off
the shelves at the goodwill. The books aren’t categorized there
particularly but there’s usually a lot of my favorite escape reading which
would be fiction specifically mystery detectives stories. The author of the
Madison’s gift David Stewart was unknown to me. Of course a former history
teacher I knew the names of Many of the good Historians. The American Revolution
and the founding of our Republic is a fascinating subject to say the least
Republic, democracy destroying our national capital all of the above are in the
news these days and under threat. It was then that I wondered what James
Madison had to say about these issues as he debated what form a stronger more
viable American system would require to survive and prosper. The pros and cons
were debated at the convention in Philadelphia, Just as they are now. the Constitution was developed
and sent to the various states be approved or turned down Washington presided
to keep order . Each state had a choice to make And the approval of a strong constitution became a fierce political debate. Lincoln's words before the Civil War were appropriate here With " a house divided A nation cannot stand"
Each chapter in the book is based upon one of the five
partnerships that Madison made with the leaders that built America. Which is to
say the Constitution that is under attack by A Recent former president Ext president and White extremist
groups that lead the charge I can’t stress this enough that reading this book
would be well worth your time Two of the founding fathers wrote serious of editorials called the Federalist papers which Advocated ratification of the new Constitution. They were Madison and Hamilton. The House stood and still does. slaveowner Madison predicted that a crisis in the future would eventually them merge as political parties did and sectional differences over the issue of slaveryThere are a number of quotes from Madison's speeches and letters in this fascinating book. I think many of them are relevant to today's political divisions in . For those reasons this excellent history is well worth your time. Make the effort tto find it in your public library and on the Internet
Great review, Ray. Well worth a read indeed.
ReplyDeleteDear Ray, I definitely will look for this book. In the past few years--since the election of Trump--I have been reading books on the American Revolution, the Constitution, and the early years of the federal government. So many fine historians have taught me to much that I didn't know.
ReplyDeleteI so hope I'll find this in the library. If not, I'll order as an e-book on Amazon. Like you, I devour fiction, especially mystery novel, and I've discovered that the audio books are the easiest for me to read because of my serious glaucoma concerns. So the histories I've read have been on audio (so many good readers too). Thanks for the tip! Hope all is well. Peace from Dee Ready.
I wish I knew we were. You followed my blogs through thick and thin for a long time and I know we have a lot of common interests. I can't imagine why you need to be anonymous can you tell me why?
DeleteDear Ray, I'm not choosing to be "Anonymous." That's why I put my name last the end of the comment. The thing is that I can't sign in on some blogs--yours being one of them--because of something that Google is doing. In fact, because of that--my not being able to sign in with Google--I can't even leave responses to comments left on my own blog. I find this all somewhat scary. Politics has me fearful for our democracy and now Google makes like even more difficult! I guess I just need to learn "to go with the flow." Peace from Dee Ready
DeleteWhoops I didn't see the second paragraph now I get it sorry
ReplyDelete