Mr. Madison’s Weird War
I had to tell you about this, because this article is so good. If you are not interested in the War of 1812, however, just hit the Delete button.
I liked this paragraph especially:
The burning of Washington and other defeats, the many misjudgments, the poor appointments, and the bureaucratic snafus all reveal that the War of 1812 was not Madison’s finest hour. He may have been at times a very successful practical politician, but he was not a decider. He was a legislator, not a natural executive; he was someone who sought to persuade, not command. Believing devoutly in republican principles, he was ill at ease in exercising executive authority. He was, as Henry Clay privately admitted, “wholly unfit for the storms of war.”
Four books are reviewed here, but I think Mr. and Mrs. Madison’s War: America’s First Couple and the Second War of Independence is the one I would pick to read (or more likely to listen to, since Audible has it too).
But I can hear the universal whining clear down here in Costa Rica – “I don’t have the time!”
The richest people in the world don’t have any time! James Madison would be ashamed of us.
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