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Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, by Joseph J. Ellis
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An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic--John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.
During the 1790s, which Ellis calls the most decisive decade in our nation's history, the greatest statesmen of their generation--and perhaps any--came together to define the new republic and direct its course for the coming centuries. Ellis focuses on six discrete moments that exemplify the most crucial issues facing the fragile new nation: Burr and Hamilton's deadly duel, and what may have really happened; Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison's secret dinner, during which the seat of the permanent capital was determined in exchange for passage of Hamilton's financial plan; Franklin's petition to end the "peculiar institution" of slavery--his last public act--and Madison's efforts to quash it; Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address, announcing his retirement from public office and offering his country some final advice; Adams's difficult term as Washington's successor and his alleged scheme to pass the presidency on to his son; and finally, Adams and Jefferson's renewed correspondence at the end of their lives, in which they compared their different views of the Revolution and its legacy.
In a lively and engaging narrative, Ellis recounts the sometimes collaborative, sometimes archly antagonistic interactions between these men, and shows us the private characters behind the public personas: Adams, the ever-combative iconoclast, whose closest political collaborator was his wife, Abigail; Burr, crafty, smooth, and one of the most despised public figures of his time; Hamilton, whose audacious manner and deep economic savvy masked his humble origins; Jefferson, renowned for his eloquence, but so reclusive and taciturn that he rarely spoke more than a few sentences in public; Madison, small, sickly, and paralyzingly shy, yet one of the most effective debaters of his generation; and the stiffly formal Washington, the ultimate realist, larger-than-life, and America's only truly indispensable figure.
Ellis argues that the checks and balances that permitted the infant American republic to endure were not primarily legal, constitutional, or institutional, but intensely personal, rooted in the dynamic interaction of leaders with quite different visions and values. Revisiting the old-fashioned idea that character matters, Founding Brothers informs our understanding of American politics--then and now--and gives us a new perspective on the unpredictable forces that shape history.
- Sales Rank: #26552 in Books
- Brand: Knopf
- Published on: 2000-10-17
- Released on: 2000-10-17
- Format: Deckle Edge
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.00" w x 6.50" l, 1.40 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
- Great product!
Amazon.com Review
In retrospect, it seems as if the American Revolution was inevitable. But was it? In Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis reveals that many of those truths we hold to be self-evident were actually fiercely contested in the early days of the republic.
Ellis focuses on six crucial moments in the life of the new nation, including a secret dinner at which the seat of the nation's capital was determined--in exchange for support of Hamilton's financial plan; Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address; and the Hamilton and Burr duel. Most interesting, perhaps, is the debate (still dividing scholars today) over the meaning of the Revolution. In a fascinating chapter on the renewed friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the end of their lives, Ellis points out the fundamental differences between the Republicans, who saw the Revolution as a liberating act and hold the Declaration of Independence most sacred, and the Federalists, who saw the revolution as a step in the building of American nationhood and hold the Constitution most dear. Throughout the text, Ellis explains the personal, face-to-face nature of early American politics--and notes that the members of the revolutionary generation were conscious of the fact that they were establishing precedents on which future generations would rely.
In Founding Brothers, Ellis (whose American Sphinx won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1997) has written an elegant and engaging narrative, sure to become a classic. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney
From Library Journal
Having considered Thomas Jefferson in his National Book Award winner, American Sphinx, Ellis expands his horizons to include Jefferson's "brothers," e.g., Washington, Madison, and Burr.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
An outstanding biographer of Jefferson (American Sphinx, 1997), Ellis takes up new lines in this exploration of the "gestative" 1790s. He tailors six stories about political episodes that highlight a founder's character, convictions, and actions. Ellis' purpose in this storytelling is to underscore how vulnerable to dissolution the founders felt their creation to be, thereby explaining the controversies (such as the compromises with slavery) that to this day excite not just scholarly but general debate about what the Declaration and Constitution achieved. For example, Ben Franklin's last public act, signing a ban-the-slave-trade petition to the First Congress in 1790, provoked a floor argument so fierce about abolition it raised the spectre of disunion; Washington expressed relief with Congress' resolution to do nothing and debate no more about the matter. Ellis recounts equally fluidly and astutely such episodes as Hamilton's death; the bargain that sited the capital on the Potomac; Washington's Farewell Address; and the germination of parties. Palpably steeped in a career's worth of immersion in the early republic, Ellis' essays are angled, fascinating, and perfect for general-interest readers. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A Fraternity of Genius
By John Van Wagner
Historians can be forgiven for deifying the men who made the American Revolution. Looking back from our cynical century, it's easy to regard their greatness as something above the human experience. In "Founding Brothers", Joseph Ellis retains all the immense respect due to Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, Hamilton and Burr. But by examining their relationships through a fraternal prism, he renders them three dimensional and accessible to those who long to understand more about exactly what happened during the revolution, and why. These icons of American independence are wholly human in "Founding Brothers." Like brothers in any family, they fight battles of ideas, egos, and principles. But when threatened from without, they come together in a fierce synthesis strong enough to spawn a nation. Ellis spins his story in a series of vignettes, focusing on very specific moments which changed the nature of the events swirling around them. He creates an intimacy with his subjects, exploring their psychology, their thought processes, plumbing the origins of their motivations. In the first chapter, for instance, he describes all the various possibilities of what went on during the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on the banks of the Hudson in 1804. By carefully turning over all the possibilities--did Hamilton's gun go off or not, did he intend to strike Burr, did Burr indeed mean to strike Hamilton--he opens the door to an understanding about what each man thought as his boat crossed from Manhattan to New Jersey for the fateful meeting. The book abounds with intimate anecdotes like this, covering all the well worn subjects of revolutionary history and re-invigorating them with keen insights and intelligent conjecture. It covers Jefferson's dinner party, the tortured issue of slavery, Washington's farewell address, and the remarkable fifty year asssociation of Adams and Jefferson with affection and elegant style.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Revolutionary philosophy 101...
By Thomas Moody
An absorbingly new and unique perspective on a period of our history that's been told and re-told many times over. Mr. Ellis presents an impressively comprehensive dissertation on what I like to call "Revolutionary philosophy". Many accounts of the war and the period discuss battles or general overviews of the Continental Congress and it's participants, but nowhere (Bernard Bailyn's "Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" being a notable exception) have we gotten into the real meaning of the Revolution and the major obstacles that the Founders had to overcome to establish the Republic that stands today. Through a well-told (but sometimes, admittedly, too "wordy") series of short stories, we get a firm understanding of what the major issues were in the post Revolutionary period and an insight to the people that made up our Government who's responsibility it was to solve them. And solve them they did, whether it was through quiet manipulation via back channels (James Madison and Thomas Jefferson)or through violence (the Hamilton/Burr duel). For the most part, however, we really see what the Founders were made of and why they are held in the legendary esteem that they are today (Washington, Franklin and Adams). The book accomplishes all this in surprisingly few pages (about 250), but what it lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. I enjoyed the chapters entitled "The Duel, "Farewell", "Collaborators" and the surprising chapters that closed out the book on the Jefferson/Adams fued, and in every story, we get a refreshing look at the principals and an extensive (as I mentioned before, sometimes too extensive) philosophical discussion on the true meaning of the establishment of our Republic.... with the recent release of David McCullough's "John Adams" you really have new and exciting Revolutionary reading thats easy to understand and hard to put down.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
I didn't know how much I didn't know
By Mike Rossander
I learned an amazing amount about our culture and government from reading this book. So many aspects of our current two-party system became much clearer to me. We are, and I discovered always have been, a nation divided over the proper role of government. The Democrat/Republican/Libertarian feud is a continuation of that original question. And our two-party system is a way around the inherent unanswerability of the question.
As Ellis clearly lays out, the miracle of the American post-revolutionary period (and of the specific men who steered us through that period) was not that we won the war but that we kept from spiraling into the bloodbaths and cycles of retribution that have plagued so many revolutions since.
The writing is engaging and quick. The organization into 6 stories worked very well. Ellis does not pretend to write a comprehensive history, but attempts to capture the emotion and conflict of the time. I felt like I finally knew the people in all those paintings. I could relate to them as real men with real motivations (both petty and momentous).
I loved this book, but pure historians might not for many reasons. (See the other reviews. The only factual error I found was when he presented as "correct beyond any reasonable doubt by DNA studies done in 1998" that Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with Sally Hemings (page 202 paperback). In fact, substantial doubt remains. The DNA evidence only proves that someone in Jefferson's family fathered the child.) For an average reader with an average understanding of US history and culture, it is a very enlightening read.
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