The Mind of James Madison
The Legacy of Classical Republicanism

This book provides a compelling and incisive portrait of James Madison, the scholar and political philosopher.

Colleen A. Sheehan (Author)

9781108404983, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 May 2017

293 pages
23 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

'Thinking about how public opinion formed in that shifting environment would be an important historical project, and one that might benefit from Sheehan's deep and nuanced analysis of Madison.' Tom Cutterham, History of Political Thought

This book provides a compelling and incisive portrait of James Madison, the scholar and political philosopher. Through extensive historical research and analysis of Madison's heretofore underappreciated 1791 'Notes on Government', Madison's scholarly contributions are cast in a new light, yielding a richer, more comprehensive understanding of his political thought than ever before. Tracing Madison's intellectual investigations of republics and philosophers, both ancient and modern, this book invites the reader to understand the pioneering ideas of the greatest American scholar of politics and republicanism - and, in the process, to discover anew the vast possibilities and potential of that great experiment in self-government known as the American republic.

Part I: 1. An itinerant scholar in Mr Jefferson's library
Excursus: travels with Anacharsis
2. Circumstantial influences on government
3. The power of public opinion
4. The federal republican polity
5. Postscript
Part II: 6. 'Notes on Government'
7. Additional notes on government
8. Madison's convention notes and his letter of October 24, 1787, to Thomas Jefferson
9. Party press essays.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], History of the Americas [HBJK]