10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An account of a nation becoming an international power, September 29, 2001
This review is from: Presidency of James Madison (American Presidency (Univ of Kansas Hardcover)) (Hardcover)
Writing after the fact, historians often conclude that a war was preventable. This is generally false, as the dispassionate writer is removed from the context of the times. The war in 1812 between the United States and Great Britain has often been viewed as a pointless, forgettable war, yet in fact it had enormous consequences. The war was the defining moment of the Madison presidency and a significant break from the policy of the previous Jefferson and early Madison administrations. In describing the war, Rutland is masterful in describing the context and emotions of the times, the combination of which caused a war that was inevitable.
At the time, the Napoleonic wars were raging on the European continent and both Britain and France sought to wring every advantage they could out of what they considered an upstart nation. For years, Jefferson and Madison tried every tactic they could short of war in an attempt to delay a call to arms. Finally, national pride won out over all other factors and the war began. Madisons conduct of the war was not nearly as effective as it could have been, and yet the tie was all that was needed. James Monroe, the successor to Madison, enunciated what is now known as the Monroe doctrine, which warned all nations to avoid colonization efforts in the Western Hemisphere. With little American sea power to back it up, it was the first example of cooperation between Britain and the United States, as the enforcement was due to the power of the British navy. It is doubtful that this could have happened without the war.
The ways in which Rutland places the war in the context of power struggles in Europe and in the United States is masterful, as he describes how fragmented the United States was in those years. It is also possible to see the seeds of an eventual split and internal war, not over the issue of slavery, but over commercial and social differences.
In so many ways, Madisons best years were behind him when he became president. And yet, his handling of the war of 1812 was most likely the best that could have been done, as he sought to defend a fractious nation against an old foe who afterward became a staunch ally. For that reason alone, his administration should be considered a success and this book is the most realistic appraisal of his years in the White House that I have ever seen.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sloppily edited and disappointing book, February 28, 2009
This review is from: Presidency of James Madison (American Presidency (Univ of Kansas Hardcover)) (Hardcover)
I was quite disappointed in this book, having recently read Rutland's much older book "The Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776-1791" from 1955 and "The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson" by Forrest McDonald from 1976. Rutland did an excellent job summarizing the history of the civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights in his earlier book which was logically planned and well-written. McDonald's book was one of the earliest entries in the University Press of Kansas American Presidency Series; it is an excellent book that is well-written and even important since it shows Jefferson in a very different, harsher light than the glow that usually bathes him.
The main problem with Rutland's account of Madison's presidency is that it is sloppily edited. He often repeats things that he has already mentioned, sometimes more than once. For instance, he discusses the attempt by Representative John Randolph to deny Madison the presidency three times: at the very beginning and in the middle of chapter 2 and again in the middle of chapter 5, long after Madison has already been elected president while describing the history of the relationship between Madison and Monroe. Once would have been enough. There are other examples throughout the book. I got the feeling that Rutland (who was the editor of Madison's papers at the time) was assigned this book and did a rushed job on it and that the editors of the series failed to force improvements on him. Perhaps it is significant that this book was written 17 years after the series was first started; maybe the editors who started the series are no longer involved in the project.
There are also some other problems:
1) Rutland makes a rather silly statement in his preface that presidents should be judged based on whether they keep the promises they made. While that could certainly be one criterion, there are many others including the competence of their administration, how effectively they handle unforeseen events, and whether or not their policies and decisions ultimately benefit the country.
2) Rutland seems to harbor some strange animosity toward Alexander Hamilton. He finds reason to criticize the first Treasury Secretary several times even though he had died 4 years before Madison became President. In particular, Rutland's claim that Hamilton's "ambition to be elected president became so blatant that he had to settle for being a power behind the scenes" seems based on what people like Adams and Jefferson wrote about Hamilton rather than on any actual evidence that Hamilton aspired to be President.
3) Rutland claims at the beginning of chapter 1 that Madison only lost one election between 1776 and 1817. But in his own book on the Bill of Rights, he described how Madison lost his bid to be a senator from Virginia in 1788 before winning his seat in the House of Representatives.
I was especially frustrated that this book cost me $29 since it was only available in hard cover. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten the similar book by Gary Wills from The American Presidents series; that book is only $15 and has 27 mostly positive reviews in comparison to the single review that Rutland's book had before I wrote this. Unfortunately, I let the fact that Rutland was the editor of Madison's papers convince me that his account would be more authoritative.
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