Hi, I'm Jeff Sickinga, executive director of the Ashbrook Center, and this is the American

idea, where we discuss the ideas, people, and events that have made America what it is today.

We believe that by understanding our history and our principles, we can better

live up to the promise of the American founding and preserve our ongoing experiment in self-government.

Welcome to the American Idea.

Well, I want to welcome everyone to this episode of the American idea. Today we're going to be

talking about one of the most profound political thinkers of America in America, an important

person, sometimes known as the father of the Constitution. I'm asking my guest

today if James Madison really deserves that title. We're going to be talking today about

James Madison's contribution to the Federalist with Professor Jeremy Bailey. For those of you who

don't know Jeremy, you should know Jeremy. He is, I would say, one of the leading scholars of American political thought today, in the country today.

He is a very widely published author, written articles in all the prominent and most prominent political science journals,

including the American Political Science Review, History of American Political Thought, and the Harvard political science journals, including the American Political Science Review,

history of American political thought, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

He's also a prolific author of books, a number of important works, and he's got a couple

coming up, actually, and he's working on, just talking to him before we got on the air about his new book

on Thomas Jefferson called The Other Declarations, Thomas Jefferson in the Language of American

Democracy, coming out with the wonderful press at the University of Kansas, and also, I think,

editing a two-volume edition of James Madison's political writings with Cambridge University

Press. So, folks, we have with us a true expert on James Madison's political writings with Cambridge University Press.

So, folks, we have with us a true expert on James Madison and on American political thought.

Jeremy Bailey, thanks for being with us on the American Idea.

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