Let me say right up front that I was disappointed in this book. Maybe I am too stuck in my ways, but when I pick up a history like this I was looking for an well-organized book. I want each President with his own chapter, some details that are presented for each person i.e. year of terms, Vice President etc, and then a nice review of what took place while in office, the good and the bad. The book just did not provide this; the presidents were grouped into chapters on what seemed to be on a basis as to total average chapter page length not by political or situational similarities. The basic facts that I wanted were not there for every President, and if they were there you needed to hunt for them. And if you are going to give me pictures then at least give me a picture of every President covered in the book, what we got were pictures of a few Presidents, a few campaign adds or jokes, and unbelievably to me pictures of city political bosses.

The book was positive; I give the author that. When there were negative issues they were glossed over if even mentioned. I new based on the size of the book that it was not going to be an exhaustive history, but even this brief look at each President left me disappointed. Also I kept thinking that the author wanted to write a history of the Democratic party and the publisher wanted a history of the Democratic Presidents and what came out was a compromise that did not serve either cause very well. I would have much rather had a few more pages on FDR (then the 15 offered) and less about the Kansas City and Chicago political bosses and the third party candidates on some elections. I do not want to be all-negative, there were a number of interesting facts and he hit the high notes on each man. I was interested enough to finish the book. I am just going to have to keep looking for a better effort at this topic.

From the start one thing needs to be made very clear about this book. It is a nice read for a Democrat, especially a partisan Democrat like myself. My Republican friends on the other hand would, I'm afraid find very little interesting about this book. Simply put, this is a very one sided view of history. Democrats tend to be pictured in the best possible light from page one. This is not to say that Mr. Rutland has not done his homework for he has. I don't think he ever set out to write an impartial historical epic. What he seems to have intended is basicly a survey type textbook for Democrats. If that was his goal he has accomplished it. Someone looking for a quick political history of the United States told from the Democratic point of view will find it here.

The simple fact is that Mr. Rutland took upon himself a rather large task in writing a history of the Democratic party. To do this task justice one would have to turn out a work that would rival in length the volumes written by Shelby Foote on the Civil War. In fact, this subject would probably require even more volumes since the subject covers over two hundred years of history. As it is the book in its 241 pages is only able to deal in the most superficial way with its subject.

Still this book does a fair job of following America's oldest party from its roots as Jefferson looks to a nation of farmers to today's urban America. Along the way we see the Democrats changing to become the party of the common man and the underdog. We see the party begin to take its present form in 1896 as William Jennings Bryan and his populists take control of the convention. We see more change in 1912 with the nomination of the progressive Woodrow Wilson. Then in 1932 FDR comes along and the Democratic party is forever changed. Old Democratic issues like tariffs and free silver give way to civil rights and labor relations. The direction of the party continues on the course set by Roosevelt as Harry Truman takes over and then LBJ sets off an a path of sweeping social change that for good or bad forever changes the United States. Oddly, the book gives little credit for the present positions of the Democratic party to JFK.

There are also a few places in the book where Mr. Rutland's facts are wrong. For example he states that in the election of 1896 William McKinley took T. Roosevelt with him to Washington as his Vice President when in fact T.R. wasn't on the ticket until 1900. For the most part however his facts do seem straight and he covers the subject as well as could be expected in such a short book.

Overall, the book could have been more in depth and such a large subject should probably never have been undertaken. I remember in high school english I always tried to choose a very broad topic for any paper I had to write because I figured it would be easy to turn out twenty pages that way. My teacher always called me on my plan though and I had to narrow it down. Maybe Mr. Rutland needed a good high school english teacher to make him do the same here.

On the other hand it is hard to study American history without a study of the Democrats. The party of Jefferson has been here through most of our history. So while this book gives one a quick look at the history of one party it also for the most part does the same for American history. Its not a waste of time to read this book by any means but it is more gravy than meat.

Don't waste your money (and time) on that ancient book.

It's shame to offer a 70's book for regular sale! Although it reprinted again in 94, its content remain.

It is a very usefull book for an computer engineer.If you are in a first class of computer engineer you can have some difficulties about using the mathematical formulas in computer.This book makes you learn yery easy.It is for a starter.

If you are looking for a biography of James Madison, look elsewhere. Rutland's subtitle, "The Founding Father," makes it clear what this book is about: Madison's participation in the creation and passage of the constitution and the Bill of Rights. Although it does cover most of his life, the focus is definitely on Madison's role as founding father.

The book deals with the major issues of Madison's political life, often in too minute detail, but does not satisfy the biographical aspects of his life. There is absolutely no mention, for example, of Madison's birth date, or even the year he was born in! Further, the book failed completely to engage me. I set it aside for weeks at a time before I finally finished if off, despite its modest size.

I picked up this book because I was to attend a conference on Madison and wanted to know something more than the murky recollection I had from school of this less well known "founding father." I was fascinated to learn how it came to pass that after initially opposing the Bill of Rights Madison was the guy who actually got it through the first Congress. The early years were interesting, but this book rather quickly turned into a rather bewildering discussion of the ins and outs of trade with Europe and the problems that led up to the War of 1812--which sounded like a totally forgettable incident in American history. Madison was by and large an untalented president--his greatest achievements were complete by the time he was 30--the Bill of Rights and, before then, the Federalist Papers. Maybe the book went downhill with the career of its subject, but I thought the writing could have been a lot clearer and a few sentences of background information each time a new subject was introduced would have helped this book alot.

not like Jefferson & Hamilton or celebrated like Washington & Franklin. My fellow reviewers seemed disappointed in this as a biography. But it was not Mr. Rutland's goal to write a personal story of Mr. Madison's life although his later years were covered quite well. I am glad however, I took the easy way out by listening to the audio version (unedited). As if I was in Mr. Rutland's class as he was giving a lecture. The years after The Revolutionary War, The Federalist Papers, The Constitution & The Bill of Rights, are the real meat of this book. Madison's behind the scenes leadership in Congress was consummate. If we do not appreciate how important he was 200 years later, it seems that he contemporaries did. To his sorrow he was, with Jefferson, responsible for creating the two party system we now operate under. That he wanted to heed Washington's advice against the party system is evident. But he found this advice quickly outdated. As a result Washington, & to a lesser extent Adams were the only unaffiliated presidents in our history. Happily, none of this two-party stuff is cluttering up our Consititution. As Secretary of State under Jefferson & President on his own he was unremarkable. Any one could have mucked things up as well as he did. Indeed his best years were his early years. What seemed to me remarkable was the love, respect & friendship that existed between Madison & Jefferson all of their adult lives. It was an alliance of two great men that never wavered & recreated the "republican" type government of ancient Greece. Mr Rutland was obviously impressed by this relationship & alludes to it several times. I appreciate biographies that teach me something about history I didn't know. How great is this book? Hard to say. But it fit the bill.