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Becoming Madison by Michael Signer
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Becoming Madison

The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father

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Narrator David Colacci

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Length 12 hours 49 minutes
Language English
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In Becoming Madison, Michael Signer takes a fresh look at the life of our fourth president. His focus is on Madison before he turned thirty-six, the years in which he did his most enduring work: battling with Patrick Henry—the most charismatic politician in revolutionary America, whose political philosophy and ruthless tactics eerily foreshadowed those of today's Tea Party—over religious freedom; introducing his framework for a strong central government; becoming the intellectual godfather of the Constitution; and providing a crucial role at Virginia's convention to ratify the Constitution in 1788, when the nation's future hung in the balance.

Signer's young James Madison is a role model for leaders today: a man who overcame daunting personal issues (including crippling anxiety attacks) to battle an entrenched and vicious status quo. His analysis of "Madison's Method," the means by which Madison systematically destroyed dangerous ideas and left in their stead an enduring and positive vision for the United States, is wholly original and uniquely relevant today.

Michael Signer is an author, advocate, political theorist, and attorney. He has taught political theory, leadership, and governance at the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the University of California. Signer is the author of Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New Republic, and USA Today. He lives with his wife and twin boys in Virginia.

David Colacci has been an actor and a director for over thirty years, performing coast-to-coast in lead roles of plays by a variety of playwrights, from Shakespeare to Sam Shepard to Steve Martin. He has worked as a narrator for over fifteen years, during which time he has read the works of such authors as Jules Verne, Henry Adams, John Irving, Michael Chabon, and John Lescroart. He has won AudioFile Earphones Awards, earned Audie nominations, and been included in Best of the Year lists by such publications as Publishers Weekly, AudioFile magazine, and Library Journal. David was a resident actor/director with the Cleveland Play House for eight years and has been artistic director of the Hope Summer Rep Theater since 1992. He currently lives in New York with his wife, narrator and actress Susan Ericksen, and his children, Mario and Elena.

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Reviews

"A perfect introduction to a deeply private and immensely important man." ---Kirkus Expand reviews
Celebrate indie bookstores with our limited-time sale! Shop the sale