This book provides a compelling and incisive portrait of James Madison, the scholar and political philosopher. Through extensive historical research and analysis of Madison's heretofore underappreciated 1791 'Notes on Government', Madison's scholarly contributions are cast in a new light, yielding a richer, more comprehensive understanding of his political thought than ever before. Tracing Madison's intellectual investigations of republics and philosophers, both ancient and modern, this book invites the reader to understand the pioneering ideas of the greatest American scholar of politics and republicanism - and, in the process, to discover anew the vast possibilities and potential of that great experiment in self-government known as the American republic.