Founding Rivals; Madison vs. Monroe, The Bill of Rights and the Election That Saved a Nation

New York: MJF Books, 2011. First Printing thus [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xvi, 304 pages. Notes. Index. Format is approximately 5.75 inches by 8.5 inches. This was originally published as a paperback work. Christopher M. DeRose is a New York Times bestselling American author and Clerk of the Superior Court of Maricopa County, Arizona. He was formerly a law professor and Senior Litigation Counsel for the Arizona Attorney General. DeRose's first book, Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election that Saved a Nation, was named by The Washington Post as one of the "Best Political Books of 2011" and by Human Events as a "Top Ten American History Book to Read this Summer." The New York Times featured "Founding Rivals" in an article on the Congressional Book Club as a book popular with members of Congress. Publishers Weekly described it as "An engaging account of the Republic's contentious founding." Derived from a Kirkus review: His depiction of the evolving relationship between the two key Virginians proves a steady, compelling narrative. Monroe became Madison's protégé and correspondent. Madison became the architect of the Constitution. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Madison helped hammer out a perfect-enough Constitution, and then-along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay-tried to convince the public of its worth in a series of newspaper essays under the pen name Publius. Monroe, as a delegate to the Virginia Ratification Convention the next year, presented objections, namely to the lack of controls on the central government and need for preservation of basic rights. In just six months, Madison and Monroe would be battling over election to the first House of Representatives. Madison barely won, largely because of his promise to introduce into the new Congress a Bill of Rights and helping to gain passage for the first 10 amendments by 1791.