James Madison

A Biography

By: Ralph Ketcham

Narrated by: Bill Burrows

Length: 38 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

The best one-volume biography of Madison’s life, Ketcham’s biography not only traces Madison’s career, it gives listeners 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.

"Madison's personality comes alive in these pages, his strengths and weaknesses of mind and character clearly outlined. His great services in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 are graphically portrayed. The analysis of his political theory, and of the way in which he sought to apply it to the establishment of of government under the Constitution, is excellent. The depiction of Jeffersonian and Madisonian foreign policy up to the outbreak of the War of 1812 is clear and succinct. This is an excellent biography." (American Historical Review)

"Utilizing the vast amount of source material made available in the last 30 years, Ketcham has captured the essential man in his times and in doing so has made him understandable for us in our own day." (Los Angeles Times)

"This single volume has provided a penetrating and highly readable biography which merits distinction as the best one-volume life of Madison yet written." (Virginia Magazine of History and Biography)

©1990 The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (P)2021 Upfront Books

A comprehensive biography

An excellent and comprehensive biography of this amazing man. Perhaps a bit of an apologist for his failure to free his slaves yet the author doesn’t gloss over it. The great contributions of James Madison and his relationships with other major figures of the early republic are well written. The reader has numerous mispronunciations which are a bit annoying.

excellent single volume biography of Madison

very thorough, good balance of strengths and weaknesses, remarkable founding father of USA. Critical of Madison's failure to free slaves even upon his death

Good bio, but not the best

Overall, good not great. I think the material in the life of James Madison could be 5*. But the author at times neglected to connect the dots between Madison’s story with the events that were happening him. There’s an assumption that all is known. I consider myself an amateur historian and quite knowledgeable about this period, Yet there were things that it would’ve helped to have gone over in the text. Overall, definitely worth the read/listen.

Good biography, narrator could be better.

This is a pretty good book. The narrator reads clearly, but mispronounces so many words that it becomes a little absurd.

Academic & Apologist, Read by a Robot

First and foremost, the narration of this book is terribly boring and impersonal. This may be a book best read on paper.

The author himself writes quite academically, which was standard in the 60s & 70s for biographies, but feels outdated today. Combined with the narrator's poor reading, this book is difficult to listen to all the way through.

Moreover, Ketchum is often sidetracked by Jefferson and frequently justifies Madison's more reproachable actions poorly.

A great Book

I learned a lot about James Madison. An awesome book.he was an amazing man and an incredible president

Narrator Too Robotic

It’s an interesting story, but the gentleman reading it is very robotic and it becomes distracting.

Interesting, in-depth and informative

The content of this book was interesting, in-depth and quite informative. It on passionately gets into the details of James Madison’s life without preaching any kind of narrative other than to just give you the unbelievably long list and specifics of the many things he did. It’s definitely not, an always engrossing read because of this.

The real short coming in this audiobook is the performance of the narrator. To say it is subpar is generous. There are multiple instances where the narrator starts reading a passage, messes up and then restarts. It makes you wonder whether anyone edited or reviewed it before it was released because repeated starts and stops, especially in the chapter where we first come across Dolly Madison make it sound rather amateurish.

long and informative

Very long listen. The largest portion was on writing of the constitution. Would have liked more insight into the man himself but was more than adequate to give a informative impression of Madison.

Not my favorite

This book was a challenge. Had to put it on 1.5x speed to get thru it. Narrator is extremely slow and dull.

Plenty of good and interesting info in here, but not my favorite biography. The material felt very dry; an issue exacerbated by the aforementioned narration.