JAMES MADISON COMMANDER IN CHIEF: 1812-1836 by Irving Bryant

First printing. Slight cover damage. 

James Madison: Commander in Chief is the culmination⁠—and conclusion⁠—of the author's masterful biography of America's fourth president. It deals principally with Madison's direction of the War of 1812 and carries his story to the end of his life in 1836.

With the president as central figure, Irving Brant gives this least understood and most misrepresented war in American history a clear place in the evolution of the nation. Madison appears at first as an inexperienced civilian, gradually becoming Commander in Chief in fact as well as law, making critical decisions that helped build up the army's strength until American victories on land matched those on ocean.