Selected Product:
| Founding Brothers
Unabridged
Edition: Unabridged
Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date: 2001-04
ISBN-10: 0788761331
ISBN-13: 9780788761331
List Price: $29.95
Average Customer Rating:
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American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic
ISBN-10: 030726369X
ISBN-13: 9780307263698
List Price:$26.95
His Excellency: George Washington
ISBN-10: 1400032539
ISBN-13: 9781400032532
List Price:$15.00
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
ISBN-10: 0679764410
ISBN-13: 9780679764410
List Price:$15.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
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.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Why am I even reading this?
| Customer Rating: | OK so I read this book for school and had to write about each chapter. After trying to get through the Preface, I discovered this:
-one, Ellis feels the need to blather on needlessly. This book could have been easily been half the length had the author known the value of good editing
-two, apparently he has never heard of organized writing. You do not talk about one thing, talk about another and then repeatedly go back and forth. It makes this even more confusing to follow along.
-three, hey random interesting facts are cool, but they belong somewhere else, not stuck in the middle of sentence that has a completely different topic.
- four, is this guy a mind reader with a time machine? How does he know what all these guys are thinking at random points in their life? Primary documents will only take you so far. Anything i saw with this kind of tone i did not write about considering it did not look very reliable
Don't get me wrong the book has it moments. The topics for each chapter are very interesting and under normal circumstances would have been enjoyable to learn about. Just tell me when they republish this thing, reworked and edited. |
A Primer for Further Study
| Customer Rating: | 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 |
A very entertaining must-read for all Americans
| Customer Rating: | | 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. |
I learned something new about a familiar subject
| Customer Rating: | | 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. |
Too much of a good thing?
| Customer Rating: | 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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