If men were angels
Subtitle: James Madison and the heartless empire of reason
By: Richard K. Matthews.
Series: American political thought
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Lawrence, Kan
Language: eng
Number of pages: 297
Subjects: Madison, James, 1751-1836
Description: The ever-wary James Madison viewed his fellow citizens as anything but angelic. In this radically new interpretation, Richard Matthews portrays a much less optimistic (and yet more liberal) Madison than we've seen before. Neither civic humanist nor democrat, this Madison is a distrusting, calculating, and pragmatic Machiavellian Prince.

Unlike previous authors, Matthews goes well beyond Madison's work on the Constitution to reconstruct the complete range of Madison's political thought and intellectual development over the course of his extensive life. In the process, he provides a powerful critique of Madisonian politics. It is possible, he shows, to applaud the energy, design, and intellect that went into Madison's thought and simultaneously challenge the assumptions and values upon which that thought rests.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-292) and index.