Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation,   ISBN:9780375705243

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This is an entertaining narrative of the challenges in American unity in the 1790s through the eyes of principal figures (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Burr, Madison, Monroe). It reveals their convictions, alliances, and enmity in a period as likely to yield disaster as success.

The tale begins with the duel between Hamilton and Burr 11 July 1804, reverts to Jefferson's 20 June 1790 dinner for Hamilton and Madison, and ends with the rapprochement of Adams and Jefferson (and their deaths 4 July 1826). The author skillfully explores the major dilemmas of the period: location of a national capital, nationalization of state war debts, foreign relations and trade, political activism and party formation, slavery, regional rivalry, and the balance of power between the national and state governments.

Ultimately this is a rich tapestry of competing visions, collaboration, compromise and unity that afforded national survival and enduring precedents. Highly recommended.

Customer Rating: 

I needed this book for a college course. Having read it, I will not be selling it. This is an excellent book that delves into what formed our country into what it is today. I would heartily endorse it for anyone who is an American History buff.

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Excellent condition and it arrived in a timely manner. There were a few stickers on the cover but they came off really easy and didn't leave a nasty residue.

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I stole this from my brother because I inadvertently left my reading at home. I am in no way a scholar of the revolution or politics in general, but this is the first time I have gotten an appreciation for the profound compromises that are part of political life, and why the American system of laws is such a system of half measures and favors. I am struck by the political compromises that took place, and how the avoidance of conflict and the justifications lead to larger problems and greater conflict in the future. The most conspicuous of which was the question of slavery. Ellis will give a much more nuanced description, but there were two arguments for not upsetting the status quo that struck me as resonating today. One was the issue of compensation for slave holders for the loss of their property, and the other was that slavery was woven into the fabric of southern life.

In 1790, opponents to abolition had a "relentless focus on the impractical dimensions of all plans for abolition." The estimates for the cost of emancipating the slaves at the time was ranged between $70 and $140 million. At a time when the total federal budget was $7 million annually, this had the appearance of an insurmountable obstacle. However, Ellis goes on to describe how a gradual emancipation would have worked, and the numbers seem much more reasonable when looked at over time. With 20/20 hindsight, we see the subsequent 200 years of internecine strife in the Civil War, and the barbarism of segregation and the struggle for civil rights, the history of which affects us to this day.

The other argument was that slavery "was grafted onto the character fo the southern states during the colonial era and had become a permanent part of American society south of the Potomac" and that it was "one of those habits established long before the Constitution, and could not now be remedied."

Thus the reasons for not addressing the single most obvious moral failure of the founding of this country could not be addressed for economic and cultural reasons.

This old story continues today, and echoes of this argument exist today in two contemporary issues: that of health care reform, and that of climate change.

The opponents of health care reform, in particular the opponents to the public option, frequently cite the costs of such a program, and use inflated numbers and fail to recognize the societal benefit and the long-term savings. They portray the expense as an insurmountable obstacle.

The same are the arguments regarding fossil fuel use: that such use and the cheap cost of energy are long established, and to try to change would be a terrible burden on the American people. These arguments perpetuate the inertia. Yet, as we see with the Civil War, that inertia ultimately leads to an explosive result, untold death, destruction and misery. We already see the results of our moral failure on the health care issue. The pain from climate change will be far more severe and final, and potentially threaten the survival of our species. Our "leaders" are morally derelict. They are unwilling to make the hard decisions to change the behavior of this nation because of political patronage and the status quo. In the face of a common enemy our political system has provided positive leadership that has significantly altered past patterns. We need this leadership again.

Customer Rating: 

I have read most of Ellis's work and this book is the best of the two vignette type histories that be published back to back. Overall the book is a very enjoyable read and liberates Ellis from the mundane role of Biographer and allows him to be a story teller. However the best 20 pages are the Preface. In it Ellis tackles the elusive question of how in the turn of the 18th to 19th century did a handful of men who would have been second tier nobility in English Society . . . conceive and create the greatest experiment in Democracy in the history of human kind, win a Revolution, become the first nation to throw off its Coloniol Taskmasters and oh by the way fashion a document of governance that has withstood two centuries and continues to provide the framework for a dynamic modern society. It is a fascinating commentary on the nature of Society and the unique qualities of the early American Colonial Society that allowed the best and brightest to rise to the top and be in the right place at the right time So don't skip the preface . . .