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Jefferson and Madison really come off badly ... I thought that this biography was excellent. My only criticism is that it was too long and could have been quite a bit shorter without any loss in quality. The thing that surprised me the most however, is how badly Madison and--even more so--Jefferson come off in this book. I am not a historian and I have not read biographies of either man so I don't know whether or not Chernow's views would be generally agreed upon by most historians or not. If his views are correct however, I would find that rather depressing because I had previously assumed that Jefferson and Madison were right up there with Washington in terms of their overall greatness as founding fathers of America. However, this book rudely disabused me of that view, at least to the extent based on their conduct during the 1790's during the height of Hamilton's power (as opposed to judging them by their Presidential tenures). Particularly in comparison to Jefferson (and, to a lesser degree, Madison), Jefferson comes off as being a backstabbing little man who was parochial in this thinking and who could not match Hamilton's intellect, courage or integrity--in fact, he didn't even come close. Even worse, Jefferson's views as to what was best for America (and, correspondingly, his fears about where Hamilton was leading the country) have proven--with the hindsight of history--to be way off the mark, while Hamilton's visions were much more farsighted and accurate precursors of what America would (and should, in the best sense) become. Madison, by virtue of havin his feet planted firmly in his fellow Virginian's camp, also comes off as much less of a great man than was Hamilton. I really felt sorry for Hamilton having to endure the brunt of the many scurrilous attacks upon him by Jefferson and Madison. Thank god that Washington stuck by him. Of course, I am assuming that Chernow's view of history is in fact the accurate view.