Revolutionary Characters: What Made The Founders Different, By Gordon S. Wood

Over the course of our country’s history there have been several characters that revolutionized modern day America. These characters are now only publicized in museums with little to no intellect on how important they are to our country. Although their history is taught in schools and history lectures about their success, one can think, what made these founders so special? The personality of these founders aided in their decisions on what was important to make America better. In the intensely written work Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, Gordon S. Wood analyzes eight founding fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine and Aaron

Although the author did a good job at analyzing and presenting his ideas, I found it difficult to follow the information. I believe the book I was reading was beyond my level because there were words and characters that contributed to each founding father that I had to revisit and re-analyze in the context of each chapter. Not only that, but if I was unfamiliar with one of the characters I couldn’t understand the information. For instance, reading through the chapters on Thomas Paine and George Washington were easy to understand because I’ve learned the information in history classes throughout years of schooling. But for characters like Aaron Burr, it was difficult to follow his story. It took me a while to accurately understand what the theme was and how the author tied it into his story. Eventually realizing what the theme was and how each chapter contributed to it, I could read through and comprehend each chapter. For those who love and understand history in detail and have a complete comprehension of the time period, I would recommend the book. For others who do not understand exactly who or what the founding fathers are, I would recommend brushing up on your history before diving into this

For characters like Aaron Burr, it was difficult to understand why his character was so important to his role in society. Woods mentions that Burr’s part as a revolutionary was important to determine the character for some of the other founders. But, since I did not understand what Burr’s history was I was not able to reflect on why his character contrasted the other founders. Woods recalls comments from Alexander Hamilton that exemplified the disgust he felt for Burr. It was not until later in the chapter that I could distinguish the reasoning for Burr’s actions and why exactly Hamilton was against him. United together, all the founders agreed that the treason Burr committed against his class was reason enough to keep him out of office. Yet, with the complex wording and information Woods presented, I was still left questioning what treason Burr committed. It became difficult to follow his story when topics of his early life in the war, hatred towards Hamilton and the concluding statements on Burr’s unhappy ending were all being presented without a link to each section. Overall, I did not see a need for the inclusion of Aaron Burrs character because of the information being presented. It only made the analysis of how he contributed to the other founders’ character more confusing since I was not able to understand his full