James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham Book Review

Note: Hi, when I review books, or anything really, I’m big on discussing what works and what doesn’t work. That often involves spoilers, and seriously I do mean SPOILERS. If you’re not cool with that, that’s totally fine. I have a spoiler-free review that you can read here on Goodreads. But if you’re cool with spoilers, then let’s sit back and chat about this book.

Note: This book is a part of my Presidential Book Challenge in honor of the 2020 Presidential Elections.

A Brief Summary

-Taken from Goodreads–
The best one-volume biography of Madison’s life, Ketcham’s biography not only traces Madison’s career, it gives readers a sense of the man. As Madison said of his early years in Virginia under the study of Donald Robertson, who introduced him to thinkers like Montaigne and Montesquieu, “all that I have been in life I owe largely to that man.” It also captures a side of Madison that is less rarely on display (including a portrait of the beautiful Dolley Madison).

What works

Overall, I thought it was a decent read and I enjoyed it much more than my last presidential book.
There was this absolutely incredible attention to detail (see side question section) throughout the book. I was impressed at how easily I found myself immersed in the words.
The narrative flowed well, and while the tone of the writing often read as more academic, there was still enough of a story feel that I didn’t feel like I was reading someone’s thesis paper.

What May or May Not Work

I will start off by saying that as the hard-copy version I was using was big and its text was small, visually it made any progress I made reading-wise feel less than what it was.
While I was thoroughly satisfied with the majority of how James Madison’s life was presented, mainly from the creation of the Constitution through his presidency, I did feel that the narrative dragged a bit before and after those sections. They weren’t terrible to read and I did find interesting bits within them, they were just slow sections. Perhaps it was the anticipation of getting to the Constitution (and then to the completion of the book) that kept me from enjoying the full biography.

Honorable Mentions

Lucy Washington’s marriage: “Lucy had apparently rejected Judge Todd along with her other suitors but, impulsively, after he had left for his home in Kentucky, she changed her mind and sent word for him to return to marry her; the wedding took place the following Sunday in the White House.”
The Roll Call Shout Out to future friends in future reads (which I should have been doing since 1776 but we’ll start now and seriously did everybody know everybody else back in the day? I’m also sure I saw 8th President Martin Van Buren make an appearance in one of the bios so far)
- William Henry Harrison (the 9th president)
- Andrew Jackson (the 7th President)
  - Davy Crockett (small shout out because it’s Davy freakin’ Crockett)
- Madison’s great-nephew (I’m pretty sure), who was born the year of his father’s death, became the personal physician of General Robert E. Lee after the Civil War
Also, this book was when I really realized that Andrew Jackson was the 7th president. I get it, why am I talking about a president who won’t serve for another 2 decades? But knowing that Andrew would be serving later on and seeing him in his younger years during the War of 1812 threw me for a loop because other than the founding fathers, I hadn’t really thought about what the other early presidents had been doing before they became president. Which now means I’ll be paying more attention to see how often the US presidents appear in each others’ books.
It sounds morbid (and it is) but I loved how James Madison’s death played out. “He was ready to die at his appointed hour, having rejected suggestions that he take stimulants to extend his life a few days so he could die on July 4, 1836, the sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, just as Adams and Jefferson had died on its fiftieth anniversary and Monroe on its fifty-fifth.” And then when his appointed hour did come, “he seemed to have trouble swallowing, Mrs. Willis asked him what the trouble was. Jennings recalled that Madison replied, ‘nothing more than a change of mind, my dear,’ and then ‘his head instantly dropped, and he ceased breathing as quietly as the snuff of a candle goes out.'”

Side Questions

While I greatly appreciate now possessing the knowledge of the daily schedule of Princeton students in the 1750s, I must still ask why did I need to know? ~~That bit of information probably isn’t going to help at my next trivia night.~~ In fairness, a good deal was spent on understanding the educational background that led to James Madison being the best person to craft the Constitution, but was the daily schedule really that important?

Would I read this book again?

I would recommend this book to those who want to know more about the 4th President of the United States, but I’m not sure I will be reading this book again. Maybe, maybe not, but I’ll certainly need a long break before I decide to tackle it again.