James Madison: The Founding Father

Tracing Madison's role in the War of Independence, his fight for religious freedom, and his guidance of the Constitutional Convention, the author explores Madison's life from the drafting of the Bill of Rights and writing the "Federalist Papers" through his term as President

Biographies & Memoirs

Rutland, Robert Allen

Leaders & Notable People

Macmillan

Henry Adams portrayed James Madison as a weak president who lacked both decisiveness and administrative skills. For a century, most historians accepted Adams's assessment. In this new study of the fourth presidency, distinguished historian Robert Allen Rutland paints a more complicated portrait. Rutland, former editor-in-chief of the Madison Papers, sees Madison as a bookish, practical statesman who worked furiously to avoid conflicts in his cabinet and in Congress. When he finally realized England would not be swayed by economic pressure, he boldly led the nation into a second war for independence that allowed the United States to emerge with a renewed sense of dignity and purpose. Madison made some serious errors in judgment, according to Rutland. In time, though, he filled his cabinet with competent men, and, by some unexpected vetoes, renewed his commitment to republican ideals within a constitutional framework. During his last years in office Madison helped fashion a government that would luxuriate during the Era of Good Feeling and withstand the hard knocks of Andrew Jackson's democratic surge. Rutland's lively narrative covers all major events of the Madison administration, including the War of 1812 and the push for national expansion. It provides a fresh interpretation not only of the contribution of Madison's presidency, but also of the "master builder of the Constitution" himself. Madison emerges neither as the weakling painted by Henry Adams nor as a demigod, but rather as a man who attempted to be the president envisioned at the Constitutional Convention and who achieved his highest priority, to strengthen the Union.

The Presidency of James Madison (American Presidency Series)

Historical

University Press of Kansas

About the Author Robert Allen Rutland (1922–2000) was Professor of American History at the University of Virginia and the author of numerous books and articles on early U.S. history.Twice elected to the U.S. Senate from Oklahoma, Fred L. Harris is now Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novel Following the Harvest. Product Description Okemah, Oklahoma, where Woody Guthrie once lived and wrote songs, was fighting for its existence in the late 1920s and early 1930s as the oil boom ended, cotton fell to ten cents a pound, and Prohibition was in force. Yet this grim scenario frames Robert Rutland’s colorful remembrance of a youth filled with adventure, characters, curiosity, and love. Here is the true story of a little boy who found life full of excitement, wonder, and joy in a small town on the southern plains.

A Boyhood in the Dust Bowl, 1926–1934

Interlacing humor into his ongoing narrative, Robert Allen Rutland provides in The Democrats a readable, balanced account of how the Democratic party was founded, evolved, nearly died, and came back in the twentieth century, flourishing as a political melting pot despite numerous setbacks. This updated version of Rutland's much-heralded The Democrats: From Jefferson to Carter provides new insight into the long hiatus in the Democrats' presence in the White House between Carter and Clinton. In additon to analyzing Carter's successes and failures as president, Rutland also examines the forces that went into the Democratic defeats and Republican victories in 1980, 1984, and 1988, concluding with the election of another Jeffersonian Democrat, William Jefferson Clinton. The book ends with an examination of the dramatic results of the 1994 congressional elections that began to alert President Clinton to the challenge he would face in winning reelection in 1996.

The Democrats: From Jefferson to Carter

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Louisiana State University Press

Book by Rutland, Robert Allen, Hunt-Jones, Conover, Rice, Kym S.

James Madison and the Search for Nationhood

Hunt-Jones, Conover

Library of. Congress

Rice, Kym S.

Daniel J. Boorstin Collection (Library of Congress)

Teen & Young Adult

Library of Congress

Excerpt from the foreword: Whether or not we are a nation of readers is a topic of contemporary concern and debate. Surrounded as we are by electronic media and an endless variety of leisure-time possibilities. It is difficult for us to fathom how important the printed word was to earlier generations. But in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, books and reading were essential characteristics of American life. As historian Robert A. Rutland, editor of The Papers of James Madison, explains in his essay, books and the ideas conveyed by books were crucial to the founding of our nation. This volume, which also includes a surprisingly comprehensive list of books that Congressman James Madison thought were needed by the first national legislature, is published by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Well Acquainted With Books: The Founding Framers of 1787

Social Sciences

Rutland's (American history, U. of Virginia) memoir of his boyhood in Okemah, Oklahoma in the 1920s provides a first-hand account of the Great Depression's dust bowl, Prohibition, and the oil bust. Historical references are particularly interesting coming from the perspective of a young boy who, as Tony Hillerman notes in his introduction, did not know he was a "victim" "We lacked psychologists to inform us that we were losers because of childhood deprivation and family dysfunction." The "charm" of these reminisces underpins an astute socio-historical recording of the era. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

A Boyhood in the Dustbowl 1926-1934

Univ Pr of Colorado

The Great Depression and Prohibition are ominous memories in most historical accounts. But here is the true story of a little boy who found life full of excitement, wonder, and joy in the small midwestern town of Okemah, Oklahoma. Okemah, where Woody Guthrie once lived and wrote songs, was fighting for existence in the late 1920s and early 1930s as the oil boom ended, cotton fell to ten cents per pound, and Prohibition was in force. Yet this grim scenario frames Robert Rutland’s colorful remembrance of a youth filled with adventure, characters, curiosity, and love. Young Rutland was the product of a "broken" home. After his father died of pneumonia at twenty-six years old, Rutland’s mother, unable to care for her children, sent Robert off to live with his alcoholic but caring grandfather, "Pop," and his wife, "Mom." The boardinghouse in which they lived had a steady stream of personalities flowing through, both for the food Mom served inside to the oil crews and assorted guests and for the booze Pop served out back. Beyond the boardinghouse, life was equally rich for young Rutland: talking movies on Saturday for a dime, a library filled with magical titles, medicine shows, school yard bullies, bloody noses, and summer camp. But these simplicities of life were mixed with the often painful lessons of reality in depression-era Oklahoma, with poverty, alcoholism, violence, and racism. Told with caring detail, A Boyhood in the Dust Bowl Will carry the reader back to a long-lost place and time.

A Boyhood in the Dust Bowl 1926-1934

Birth of the Bill of Rights. 1776-1791

History

Americas

Northeastern Univ Pr

Including Two Appendices. Appendix A, The Virginia Declaration Of Rights; Appendix B, The Federal Bill Of Rights.

Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776-1791

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Books by Rutland, Robert Allen