After two centuries of being perceived as Thomas Jefferson’s junior sidekick, James Madison has in recent years leapt to the forefront of scholarly concern. Beginning with Drew McCoy’s superb 1989 account of Madison’s retirement years, The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy, several historians and political scientists have offered interesting reassessments of Madison.

Why that should be is an interesting question. Jefferson’s reputation has declined substantially as first Conor Cruise O’Brien highlighted his bloodcurdling statements about the violence of the French Revolution and then Annette Gordon-Reed persuaded most students of the subject that he had fathered children by Sally Hemings (even before DNA evidence buttressed that conclusion). Another possibility: Perhaps Jefferson’s support of limited government no longer appeals in the age of $4 trillion budgets, and his case for freedom of conscience has lost its allure in the age of “Bake the Cake!”