Edmund S. Morgan
No one who has followed Banning's account of Madison's development... will read The Federalist or plot the trajectory of his career in quite the same way again. This is no small achievement.
Rob Edmonds
Banning's treatment of James Madison is original and brilliant. His book is a landmark to the scholarship of the American republic and to an essential Founder. The Sacred Fire of Liberty will remain the authority on Madison for years to come.
Evan Cornog
Brilliant and original.... The Sacred Fire of Liberty is a challenging book, bristling with ideas and filled with fine shades of emphasis and meaning. Yet there is... no jargon or academic obfuscation, and the attentive reader should have no trouble following the argument.
From the Publisher
The Sacred Fire of Liberty is a work of tremendous erudition; an intellectual biography of James Madison that changes and enriches our understanding of the man, his thought, and the part he played in the Founding.... It is safe to say that any future study of Madison will begin with this insightful and well-argued reinterpretation.