With a career spanning more than four decades, Madison is an award-winning teacher and author who serves as the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University and is an “Indiana Living Legend,” as designated by the Indiana Historical Society.

Widely recognized as one of the state’s preeminent historians, Madison has authored books delving into a wide range of Hoosier history, including: The Indiana Way: A State History (1986); Eli Lilly: A Life, 1885–1977 (1989); A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America (2001); Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II (2007); and Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana (2014). His most recent book, The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland (2020), is shortlisted in the nonfiction category of the 2022 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards.