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Title: Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis ISBN: 0-375-70524-4 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (278 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Founding fathers & political rivals in newborn Republic
Comment: This book is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for good reason. Author Joseph J. Ellis offers intimate portraits of our nation's founding fathers and also a vivid view of the political rivals in our newborn Republic. Ellis is a terrific writer. History comes alive in this stirring narrative...the action starts in the opening pages with the most famous duel in American history and ends in the final chapter with a glowing review of the fued/friendship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington are examined in great detail by Ellis. Adams "enlightened diplomacy" negotiated a critical peace treaty with France. Burr is an opportunist and manipulator who was never forgiven for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Franklin, (who is not given the same attention as others) is a scientific genius who uses the press to attack political enemies, particularly those who were advocates of slavery.
Hamilton restored public credit but also nurtured power for the commercial elite at the expense of the large landowners. Jefferson is the brilliant author of the Declaration of Independance. Madison's nickname in Congress is "Big Knive" for his ability to cut up opposition to legislation he sponsors. And Washington is the "American Untouchable," a great horseman and pragmatic military man who is clearly not as well read as other leaders of his generation but becomes by far the greatest legend among the people. The combined talents of the founding fathers provided the intellectual energy that allowed our nation to survive.
Ellis is a talented writer, impressive researcher and a towering patriot. Highly recommended.
Bert Ruiz
Rating: 2
Summary: Read critically
Comment: In Founding Brothers, Joseph Ellis uses six vignettes to show how the thoughts, acts, and interactions of the leaders of the "Revolutionary Generation" reveal their uncertainty about the new republic's ability to survive and about the issues that threaten that survival, including slavery and the two parties' fundamental differences. The "Brothers" of the title are Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton (one vignette examines their famous duel), George Washington, Benjamin Franklin (who is skimmed over, partly because of his age and lack of highest-level participation in the new government and partly, one suspects, because Ellis openly holds him in low regard), James Madison, John (and Abigail) Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.
Ellis is a highly biased historian and, as a result, can be a sloppy one. He fares best with Hamilton and Burr, showing Hamilton's concerns about Burr's character at a crucial time when character mattered because so much was at stake.
Any attempt at objectivity ends with Hamilton and Burr, however. For Ellis, George Washington is the sole reason we are here today. While outlining his physical flaws, Ellis believes that Washington had a prescient idea of what the nation needed, including a strong leader like himself-a leader who could write to the Cherokee "in this path I wish all the Indian nations to walk" (referring to his advice to them to stop fighting white expansion and to adopt white economics and culture). Ellis avoids any reference to what would happen when many of the Cherokee did exactly what Washington told them to do-the infamous Trail of Tears. For all of Ellis's belief in Washington's prophetic abilities and insight, he deliberately leaves out that which does not fit with his view of history-the fact that the Indians, whether compliant Cherokee or defiant Comanche, were going to suffer similar fates, whether they took Washington's advice or not.
Later, when listing the Founding Brothers' individual faults, the worst Ellis can say of Washington is that he was not well read, did not write well, and was a poor speller. He also notes that Washington was more of an actor than a leader, failing to acknowledge that leadership is largely a matter of acting out the role and performing for the public.
Ellis is similarly protective of John Adams, whose presidency is remembered as a bad one because that is what Jefferson wanted. Ellis points out that Adams's best decision-to send a peace delegation to France-was made while Abigail was sick in Quincy, while his worst choices-support of the Alien and Sedition Acts-were made under her direct influence. When he says that Adams did well when all the votes were counted, despite "bad luck, poor timing, and the highly focused political strategy of his Republican enemies," Ellis disingenuously blames circumstance, Abigail, and Jefferson for Adams's failings. Ellis can gloss over the evidence, but he cannot explain away Adams's personal choice to support bad legislation. He, not Abigail or Jefferson, was responsible for his own actions and his own presidency.
This is not the case with Jefferson's presidency. While it is barely mentioned (it merits part of a paragraph on page 212), Ellis says that Jefferson's first term "would go down as one of the most brilliantly successful in American history." This passive statement implies that this success had nothing to do with Jefferson or his actions, but just happens to be how history had recorded it. Ellis hurries on to state that his second term "proved to be a series of domestic tribulations and foreign policy failures." Ellis leaves the reader with the impression that Adams is not to blame for his mistakes and that Jefferson can take credit only for his failures.
While Ellis's view of Jefferson as a conniving, borderline psychotic may explain Jefferson's behavior and pattern of denial, it does so partly because Ellis contorts the evidence to lead to his conclusion rather than letting the evidence lead him to the conclusion. At one point, he states that Adams must surely have seen an exchange of letters between Abigail and Jefferson and that "we can be reasonably sure that Abigail was speaking for her husband as well as herself and goes on to elaborate that the "Adams team" was charging Jefferson with two serious offenses. One page later, Ellis contradicts himself when he says, "Although Jefferson probably presumed that Abigail was sharing their correspondence with her husband, Adams himself never saw the letters until several months later." He quotes Adams as writing, "The whole of the correspondence was begun and conducted without my Knowledge or Suspicion."
Later, Ellis reads Jefferson's mind, asserting that his use of the "collective we" in a letter was "inadvertent acknowledgment of the coordinated campaign of the Republican party." How Ellis draws this conclusion is unclear; Jefferson uses "we" three times in the sentence. There is nothing "inadvertent" about Jefferson's statement; he is telling Adams outright the collective Republican leadership's perception of his role.
Ellis has come up with an interesting interpretation of Washington as indispensable; Jefferson as treacherous, traitorous, and seemingly disturbed; and Adams between the two-a fiery but decent man, hamstrung by Washington's aura and reputation and by Jefferson's disingenuous deviousness. Jefferson's version of history, which Ellis believes was consciously created, has won. The underlying problem is that, given the level of contortions, distortions, and outright mind reading it requires for Ellis to come to this point, his version of history is as suspect as that of the Thomas Jefferson he portrays.
If you want to learn about the aftermath of the American Revolution and the relationships of its leaders, read Founding Brothers-but read it critically and with an awareness that Ellis is guiding you not to where the evidence leads, but where he directs it to lead. It's interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking-but then so is historical fiction. Trust Ellis's objectivity as much as he trusts Jefferson's.
Rating: 4
Summary: Enlightening stories about our founding fathers
Comment: I found the book to be a great way to gain insight into our founding fathers. Instead of just relating facts about their deeds Ellis tells short stories which give us a background on these men.
The reader learns what lead up to the Hamilton-Burr duel and why Jefferson and Adams went from friends to enemies and back to friends. His backgrounds on these characters lead me to a better understanding of all the founding fathers. This book is a worthwhile read and I recommend it to anyone who has interest in these men.
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Title: John Adams by David McCullough ISBN: 0743223136 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis ISBN: 0679764410 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Benjamin Franklin : An American Life by Walter Isaacson ISBN: 0684807610 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands ISBN: 0385495404 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 12 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner ISBN: 0316286168 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 22 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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