The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe

A historian of early Constitutional history, Gutzman (Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary; James Madison and the Making of America) recounts the history of the presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe (two terms each, totaling six consecutive terms). He argues that this is a distinctive American history period. An admirer of Jefferson, he perceives the third president’s philosophy to be a constant and fundamental presence in all three administrations during this 24-year era of peaceful foreign relationships, frugality in government, a small military, and limited government as prescribed by the Constitution. The author is especially interested in the important early decisions of the Supreme Court such as Marbury v. Madison, which he argues paved the way for the U.S. centralized national government, not what he believes a literal and very strict reading of the Constitution would dictate.