Lions and Tigers and Henry Clay, oh my!

I feel like we're stepping into the unknown. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson--sure, everyone knows those guys: patriots! statesmen! on money!

But James Madison seems like the end of the diving board--from this point, it's a long stretch to the next familiar president (Lincoln, although you might make a case for Jackson). And I feel, too, like we're about to head through a mysterious area of American history, that of post-Revolution to the Civil War. I know a little bit about this time period, but it's all leftovers from high school: the Missouri-Maine Compromise, the War of 1812, and, umm...umm...

One thing I had hoped this project might do was to create a sense of continuity to American history, a path from Washington to Obama that told a story about this country. Now that we're done with the exciting opening scenes, it's time to move into the ordinariness of everyday governing.

Towards that end, we're reading Garry Wills's James Madison. A short biography for a short president (oh, don't worry--that's only the first of many short jokes to come).