Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation | Joseph J. Ellis

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation | Joseph J. Ellis | A very entertaining must-read for all Americans

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Founding Brothers:...

	Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation Joseph J. Ellis Vintage, 2002 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 384 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In this landmark work of history, the National Book Award?winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals?Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison?confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation.

The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790. During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers?re-examined here as Founding Brothers?combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. Through an analysis of six fascinating episodes?Hamilton and Burr?s deadly duel, Washington?s precedent-setting Farewell Address, Adams? administration and political partnership with his wife, the debate about where to place the capital, Franklin?s attempt to force Congress to confront the issue of slavery and Madison?s attempts to block him, and Jefferson and Adams? famous correspondence?Founding Brothers brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation?s history.

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I learned something new about a familiar subject

Even though I'd seen and heard multiple items about the founding generation, I was pleasantly surprised that I learned something new from this work...namely that the discussion of the location of the new capital was seriously sidetracked by an abolitionist delegation's visit (which was even blessed by fellow abolitionist Ben Franklin shortly before his death). Highly Recommended, a great yarn.

A very entertaining must-read for all Americans

I came to this book too after watching the suberb John Adams mini-series. I wanted to learn more about some of the other early leaders of our nation. The history I learned in grade school was fleshed out here and then some. All of the chapters dealing with different defining moments in the post-revolutionary period were interesting and entertaining. I appreciated the way the book was arranged in short chapters with the major players, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Burr, and Hamilton weaving in and out of the story. You gain an appreciation of how difficult it was to keep our new United States together among a host of complicated issues. I discovered several very interesting parallels to the politics of today. The more things change, the more they stay the same as far as human nature is concerned. I recommend this book to all interested in the story of our country. A must-read for all Americans.

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A Primer for Further Study

I am not a scholar in early American Republic, so there are simply aspects of this book I can not discuss. But I can say that for a reader who takes history seriously, and wants a quick introduction to some of the primary characters who populated the political history of that period, this is a fine book. Let me get my biggest complaint out of the way first. For the true novice in the history of the Republic, there is no attempt to create a narrative that introduces the central themes nor timeline. There is an assumption on the author's part that you know the differences between Republicans and Federalists; they you understand the temporal and historical difference between 1776 and the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Continental Congress 10 years later. Without this introduction, I had trouble putting some one the book in proper context.

That said, the book focuses on people, and less on events. It paints serious portraits of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington - just to name a few - and how the interaction between these people gave rise to the Republic. It's very well written, and in large, quite readable. I found that the chapter titled "The Farewell" was a bit less tight, or well constructed than others; on the opposite side, I found the final chapter, "The Friendship," to be compelling reading. I also found the bond between John and Abigail Adams quite fascinating; she was, while always in the background, his main advisor and certainly trusted confident. A fascinating relationship that deserves a book of its own (I suspect there are already hundreds). The book is really just a primer that sets up some of the basic dichotomies that characterized the early Republic, and rather than solve them or fully explain them, it really just sets you up for further study.

I certainly recommend it; I just might suggest you read a book like Gordon S. Wood "The American Revolution" before this one, so you have a context in which to place these chapters. If you already have that background, then jump in. Ellis says that the book is largely a compendium of a lifetime of study, and for many of us, it may be the beginning of our study of the period

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Too much of a good thing?

NOTE: THIS REFER REFERS TO THE UNABRIBED AUDIO CD VERSION

First of all, I'm not going to get into the controversy over whether this book is totally accurate historically. If I knew that, I'd be writing a history book rather than reading one. The fact is, no one can be 100% sure of everything that happened or was thought 250 years ago.

That issue aside, it's an interesting book but it gets bogged down in far too much detail and analyses. It isn't scholarly enough for a truly academic treatise, but not "entertaining" enough for a popular history. It may therefore bore some readers who prefer a more humanized anecdotal telling and infuriate purists who want proven facts rather than occasional speculation.

The reader is good, but his voice tends to take on a droning quality if listened to for long periods. There is not enough differentiation for the quoted passages, so it's sometimes hard to tell what is a historical quote and what it the author's statements.

From reading other reviews, I think it's safe to say that this is book may be too lengthy and "boring" for young students (which may be a sad commentary on both our youth and our school system) yet not scholarly enough for serious American history fans. The problem is, who's left?

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