In this remarkable book, the historian Jack Rakove shows how the private lives of these men were suddenly transformed into public careers--how Washington became a strategist, Franklin a pioneering cultural diplomat, Madison a sophisticated constitutional thinker, and Hamilton a brilliant policymaker. Rakove shakes off accepted notions of these men as godlike visionaries, focusing instead on the evolution of their ideas and the crystallizing of their...

Presents 197 essays, addresses, speeches, private memoranda, and letters written by American founding father James Madison between 1772 and 1836, including documents that highlight his role in the creation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and writings from his term as president.