In clear terms, the volume lays out the conflict between Jeffersonian Republicans and their Federalist opponents who were accused of war-mongering, and exposes the irony of one of Jefferson's friends, President James Madison, leading the United States into the War of 1812, America's second war for independence. Jeffersonian America helps students, scholars, and general readers understand some of the fundamental tensions and paradoxes that have shaped the subsequent course of American history.