In one handy volume, scholars, students, and general readers alike have an authentic and responsible selection of Madison's writings. The wide range of material shows the development of a major political thinker over more than half a century as he encounters successfully the provocative questions of American political life from the Revolution and making of the Constitution to the sectional crisis over slavery. Introduction, headnotes, bibliography, and index have all been revised for this edition, especially welcome as the Constitutional bicentennial approaches.