The only thing I've got for tonight is Wikipedia on Richard Brookhiser
Richard Brookhiser (born February 23, 1955) is an American journalist, biographer and historian. He is a senior editor at National Review. He is most widely known for a series of biographies of America's founders, including Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and George Washington...
He has written books that deal either with the nation's founding, or the principles of America's founders, including What Would the Founders Do?, a book describing how the founding fathers would approach topical issues that generate controversy in modern-day America.
Brookhiser began writing for National Review in 1970. "My first article, on antiwar protests in my high school, was a cover story in National Review in 1970, when I was 15." He earned an A.B. degree (1977) at Yale, where he was active in the Yale Political Union as a member and sometime Chairman of the Party of the Right. In his freshman year he took a class on Thomas Jefferson taught by Garry Wills. Although admitted to Yale Law School, Brookhiser went to work full-time for National Review in 1977; by the time he was 23, he was a senior editor, the youngest in the magazine's history. He was selected as the successor to the magazine's founder, William F. Buckley, until Buckley ultimately changed his mind. For a short time he wrote speeches for Vice President George H.W. Bush.
He has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers...
...In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded Brookhiser the National Humanities Medal in a White House ceremony.
Wikipedia also points out his personal experience with chemo led him to support medical marijuana, and as of October 2003 he was driving a '77 Camaro.
Oh, all right -- one more. Library Journal (at B&N)has this about his current book:
Having once remarked that "if men were angels, no government would be necessary," James Madison lived a life dedicated to establishing a government that would both check the passions of the public and usher in the "rule of law." Much more than a minion of Jefferson, he was a true politico who understood the value of enlightened public opinion, the utility of an effective partisan press, and the necessity of political compromise. Having previously examined the "Holy Trinity" of the Federalist Party (Washington, Hamilton, and Adams), Brookhiser (senior editor, National Review; Alexander Hamilton, American) turns his relaxed and accessible writing style to the oracle of American constitutionalism and "father of modern politics." VERDICT While Brookhiser underestimates Madison's more radical ideas in an effort to claim him as a prize for modern conservatives, he has produced an exceptional synopsis of the essential founder's political life. Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg's recent, outstanding Madison and Jefferson provides a much more in-depth biographical account, but Brookhiser gives fans of the Revolutionary generation and those interested in the origins of American politics an engaging and succinct narrative.
In general, he's one of those author/historians whose work I might look at, but would never recommend to someone (and yes, I have a specific someone in mind) who'd read it, well, less than critically.
And then there's Coldplay. I'd kind of like to see Stephen sing with them, too...
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