Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in American Politics
Episode: James Madison and the Spirit of Self-Government: A Conversation with Colleen Sheehan
Description: Who was James Madison? Why were his Notes on Government so valuable to the American founding? Did James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington all achieve what Sheehan calls âCivic Friendshipâ? Colleen Sheehan joins Madisonâs Notes to discuss her seminal works on James Madison: The Mind of James Madison: The Legacy of Classical Republicanism (Cambridge University Press, 2025) and James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government (Cambridge University Press, 2019).Colleen Sheehan is a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. A former, longtime member of the Villanova University faculty, she is currently a professor of politics a...