Volume 49, Number 8 · May 9, 2002
Rambunctious American Democracy
By Gordon S. Wood
How Democratic Is the American Constitution?
by Robert A. Dahl
Yale University Press, 198 pp., $19.95
On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding
by Michael Novak
Encounter Books, 235 pp., $23.95
James Madison
by Garry Wills
Times Books, 184 pp., $20.00
These three books under review do not have much in common, but what does bind them together is James Madison, the influential framer of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the fourth president of the United States. Today, Madison's reputation as a Founder has never been higher. Robert A. Dahl calls him 'our greatest political scientist' and the person most responsible for our constitutional system. Michael Novak rightly sees him as the crucial figure in America's development of religious freedom. Garry Wills considers him to be the third- most-important Founder after Washington and Franklin. Indeed, because he was such an important Founder, Madison and his ideas have come to bear an extraordinary responsibility for the character of American politics and society.
Review, 5431 words
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