Michael Signer is an author, advocate, political theorist, and attorney. He holds a PhD in political science from U.C., Berkeley, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow; a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law; and a BA in politics, magna cum laude, from Princeton University. He has taught political theory, leadership, and governance at the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the University of California. He was counsel to Governor Mark Warner in Richmond, senior policy advisor at the Center for American Progress, and a candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2009. Dr. Signer is the author of DEMAGOGUE: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies (2009). His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic and USA Today, and he reviews books for the Daily Beast. He has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, the BBC and NPR. He lives with his wife and twin boys in Virginia.

Books by Michael Signer

Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father

by Michael Signer - History, Nonfiction

Michael Signer takes a fresh look at the life of our fourth president. His focus is on James Madison before he turned 36, the years in which he did his most enduring work: battling with Patrick Henry over religious freedom; introducing his framework for a strong central government; becoming the intellectual godfather of the Constitution; and providing a crucial role at Virginia’s convention to ratify the Constitution in 1788, when the nation’s future hung in the balance.