Irving Newton Brant (January 17, 1885 September 18, 1976) was an American biographer, journalist, and historian.

Early life

Brant was born on January 17, 1885, in

Walker, Iowa Walker is a city in Linn County, Iowa. The population was 688 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa metropolitan area. History Walker began as an outgrowth of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway. It was named in ...

, the son of David Brant, the editor of the local newspaper, and Ruth Hurd Brant. After attending local schools, he earned a BA in 1909 at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

. In 1918 Brant became a reporter '' St. Louis Star-Times.'' He left the Star- Times in 1923, to write poetry, plays and children's novels. In 1930, Brant returned to the newspaper as an editorial writer.

Journalism and writing

Brant wrote about

conservation of natural resources Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an in ...

for magazines and in 1930 was one of the first members of Rosalie Edge's Emergency Conservation Committee. Brant advised Roosevelt and Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, on conservation issues, such as the protection of migratory ducks against the demands of farmers. In the late 1930s, Brant performed survey work that established the boundaries of the new

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...

. In 1936, Brant wrote ''Storm over the Constitution,'' defense of the

constitutionality Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

of the New Deal, which was challenged repeatedly in the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. Brant's work reportedly encouraged Roosevelt in 1937 to send a bill to the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

to enlarge the membership of the Supreme Court and overcome the conservative majority. The so-called court packing plan lost in Congress after a bitter fight.

Madison biography

Brant's study of the Supreme Court led him to examine the legacy of former president

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

, who was largely ignored by historians at the time. When he first started writing the biography, he operated under the assumption that Jefferson overshadowed Madison's political contributions, especially influenced by the writings of the historian

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...

and his history of the United States. "I began writing the life of Madison without the slightest suspicion that the prevailing estimates of him were incorrect." While he had first focused on the then acknowledged contributions of Madison as architect of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

and author of the

Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pr ...

, he came to believe that Madison was equal in importance to

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

in creating the United States. "Not in the remotest fashion did I suspect that in their political symbiosis, Jefferson might owe as much to Madison as Madison to Jefferson". Brant wanted to rehabilitate Madison's reputation as a theorist of constitutional issues; to demonstrate Madison's mastery of practical politics; and to refute the

states rights In American political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the ...

interpretation, which denied that the Founding Fathers considered the new country to be a single nation rather than a loose confederation of sovereign independent countries.Leonard W. Levy, ''Encyclopedia of the American Constitution'' (1986) 1:146. The first volume of the Madison biography was published in 1941, the sixth and final volume in 1961 Brant died on September 18, 1976.

Bibliography of Brant's writings

* ''James Madison: The Virginia Revolutionist.'' Vol. 1. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1941). * ''James Madison the Nationalist 1780-1787.'' Vol. 2. (Bobbs-Merrill, 1948)
online
* ''James Madison Father of the Constitution 1787-1800.'' Vol. 3. (Bobbs-Merrill, 1950). * "Madison: On the Separation of Church and State." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' (1951): 4-24
Online
* "James Madison and His Times." ''American Historical Review'' 57.4 (1952): 853-870
online
* ''James Madison: Secretary of State, 1800-1809.'' Vol. 4. (Bobbs-Merrill, 1953). *"The Madison Heritage." ''New York University Law Review '' 35 (1960): 882+. * ''James Madison; the President, 1809-1812.'' Vol. 5. (Bobbs-Merrill, 1956.) * ''James Madison: Commander in Chief, 1812-1836.'' Vol. 6. (Bobbs-Merrill, 1961)
online
* '"Madison and the War of 1812." ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 74.1 (1966): 51-67. * ''The Fourth President: A life of James Madison.'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1970), abridged edition of his six volume biography * "Adventures in Conservation Putting It Up to FDR." ''Journal of Forest History'' 32.1 (1988): 32-41. * ''Adventures in conservation with Franklin D. Roosevelt'' (1989
online

Notes

Sources

* Keene, Ann T. "Brant, Irving Newton (17 January 1885–18 September 1976)" ''American National Biography'' (1999
online
* on Brant's interpretation of Madison's radical shift 1787-1792 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brant, Irving Newton 1885 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Historians of the United States