James Madison was our most cerebral founder. What he had uniquely to offer was the theory of the extended, divided, self-regulating republic enshrined in the Constitution and defended in The Federalist. But his intellectual bent makes him an unappealing subject for biography. Scholars, perhaps, thrill to the twists and turns of Madison’s political philosophy, but for general readers it can make for dull stuff. That may be why Richard Brookhiser has come to Madison only after publishing two books on Washington, one on Hamilton, an Adams family chronicle, and even a life of the relatively obscure Gouverneur Morris, among other works.

Whether by design or luck, Brookhiser picked a good time to revisit Madison. In this year of stalemate between a contemptible Congress and a feckless executive, Brook-hiser’s typically swift pacing, conversational style, and judicious choice of sources do more than restore Madison’s place in the story of American politics. They also encourage us to reconsider why a great statesman thought those famous checks and balances were necessary in the first place.

The main reason for this insistence, Brookhiser maintains, is that Madison was less of a theorist than we often assume. Although he notes the absurdity of the diminutive president assuming military airs during the War of 1812, Brookhiser makes the case that Madison was a keen and often effective practical politician. This argument is the core of the book, which successfully presents Madison as a doer as well as a thinker by