Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition] Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00029DHYU | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Pulitzer Prize, History, 2001
A
New York Times best seller,
Founding Brothers is an engrossing work of nonfiction from National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph J. Ellis. It is a book that uncovers the substance behind many of our most cherished historical tales. Here are six fascinating, well-researched chapters involving such icons as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Each chapter illuminates a particular occurrence that helped determine the course of American history while the nation was still in its infancy. Witness the infamous duel between Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and a secret dinner party that ended the haggling over a site for a permanent national capital.
The Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College, Joseph J. Ellis draws on his expertise to craft an engaging portrait of the men who shaped democracy. Nelson Runger, acclaimed for his narrations of nonfiction works, delivers a crisp reading that breathes life back into America's founders.
Direct download links available for Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation Free PDF
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 13 hours and 22 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Recorded Books
- Audible.com Release Date: May 12, 2004
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00029DHYU
In Founding Brothers, Joseph Ellis offers an excellent portrayal of the primary players of post-revolutionary America. The book is extremely readable which makes it appealing to a wide range of readers, yet provides the serious scholar with insightful historical analysis. Ellis establishes his thesis and develops it throughout the book, though , arguably, some chapters are more successful than others.
The book is by design not chronological, but does include detailed analysis of each founding father. Yet the book is not patriotic flag waving. Ellis' style is reminiscent of the consensus historians of the 1950s but with a modern approach. His portrayal shows the founding fathers separated by personalities and differences of opinion, but with the unique ability to set ambitions aside (more or less) to accomplish the nation's business. For instance, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were both Federalists yet they hated one another, Ben Franklin drew criticism for anti-slavery beliefs, Thomas Jefferson ceased correspondence with George Washington (forever) and Adams (for fifteen years), James Madison and Hamilton divided the government, and Aaron Burr eventually killed Hamilton. But with the exception of this final example all were able to deal with these differences for the good of the country. Ellis illustrates his chapters with masterful synthesis.
There are times when Ellis' theory appears to wander, as with the case of slavery and the official "silence" that governed the subject. In this case the problem did not go away but instead exploded seventy years later in civil war. He also meanders throughout the chapter on Jefferson and Adams to the point that reading becomes tedious, but his overall effort is not adversely impacted.
This book is a gem, and probably the most focussed piece of historical writing I've ever read. Professor Ellis tells us in his two-page introduction that his objective was to write a "modest-sized account of a massive historical subject", implicitly ragging on his professional colleagues who seem inclined more often towards just the opposite. In just 248 pages he takes on the thirty or so years following ratification of the U.S. Constitution, portraying this period as the most politically treacherous in our nation's history. He focuses primarily on the roles of six protagonists: Jefferson, John Adams, Madison, Washington, Hamilton, and Franklin. Aaron Burr appears too, but as a tragic foil to Hamilton more than as a significant player in his own right. Professor Ellis's technique, odd but effective, is to build six short chapters around various interactions among these key figures, arranging them artfully like a series of inter-connected short stories. Each chapter elucidates a key dimension in the political dynamics of the period, and the emotional impact of the book by the end is like that of a powerful piece of fiction, even though the author's adherence to the factual record is scrupulous. What emerges is a picture of the revolutionary nation facing the kind of crisis that undermines most revolutions as personal ambitions and conflicting agendas give rise to new tyranny or ongoing civil war. At one level, these were a group of jealous and bickering men with diverging views on the direction of the republican government they were laboring to craft. Yet in the end it is these very contradictions which allowed the improbable project to suceed, bringing in the diverse political threads necessary to bind the new nation.
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