WILSON, N.C. — Plan to join the Barton College Friends of Hackney Library on Tuesday, Sept. 18, for a book signing with author Dr. Jeff Broadwater at the College. The book signing will be held from 5:30 – 7 p.m. in Hackney Library. Refreshments will be served. This event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend.
Broadwater, a professor of history at Barton, will sign copies of his latest book, “James Madison: A Son of Virginia and a Founder of the Nation” (University of North Carolina Press, 2012). This book, available for purchase that evening, is a selection of the History Book Club, Military Book Club, and Book-of-the-Month Club.
Although occurring one day later, the book signing will also commemorate Constitution Day (traditionally celebrated on the date of its signing, September 17) by highlighting Madison, a signatory and one of the most ardent supporters of the adoption of the United States Constitution. The event is also part of Hackney Library’s “Celebrating Academic Excellence” series.
Reviews have recognized both Broadwater’s scholarship and Madison’s mark on American history. Among them, “Publishers Weekly” described the book as “Meticulously researched and surprisingly readable,” and predicted “History buffs and early-America aficionados will find Broadwater’s work indispensable.” And, a critique by Stuart Leibiger at LaSalle University, reads, “Jeff Broadwater has mastered the voluminous literature on Madison. With lively and fast-paced prose, this succinct synthesis of recent scholarship will appeal to historians, political scientists, and general readers alike.”
From Broadwater’s perspective, no single figure can tell us more about the origins of the American republic than James Madison. In this biography, Broadwater focuses on Madison’s role in the battle for religious freedom in Virginia, his contributions to the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, his place in the evolution of the party system, his relationship with wife Dolley Madison, his performance as a wartime commander in chief, and his views on slavery.
A lawyer, historian, and scholar, Broadwater is the author of three previous books about leaders in American history and politics: “Eisenhower and the Anti-Communist Crusade” (1992); “Adlai Stevenson and American Politics” (1994); and “George Mason, Forgotten Founder” (2006), which received the Richard Slattern Award for biography from the Virginia Historical Society and was listed among the Washington Post’s Best Non-Fiction Books of 2006. Broadwater has also written a chapter titled “James Madison and the Dilemma of American Slavery” for A Companion to James Madison and James Monroe, which is to be published by Wiley Blackwell.
Please join the Barton community on Sept. 18th to learn more about “the essential Madison” during a brief presentation by this singular scholar that Barton College is privileged to call its own.
For additional information about this event, please contact George Loveland, director of Hackney Library, at 252-399-6501 or email: gwloveland@barton.edu.
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