In what might be considered a game-changer in how readers look at their society and their country, Andrew Schocket’s Fighting Over the Founders examines how Americans have interpreted the American Revolution and the past through politics, historical writing, and museums over the years. Despite their overt differences, these three fields share a common ground which is brought to light in Andrew Schocket’s work. The commonalities between politicians, historians, and museum curators all focus on the same contemporary ideological divide and how all three use this to interpret and apply their ideas towards how we remember the Revolution in the past, our country as a whole, and in making current policies. Politicians, to no avail, utilize the American Revolution as a way to garner support. Andrew Schocket begins by describing how “the memory of the American Revolution has become politicized across the spectrum of historical expression—including politicians, public historians, scriptwriters and directors, judges and activists, biographers, and even …show more content…
Most of the Revolutionary historical sites and museums utilized the theme of liberty. However, as Schocket explains, “At the same time, they offered elements of essentialist and organicist interpretations that varied according to a range of constituents including not only audiences but also their staffs, their donors, and their parent institutions.” Schocket states, “American Revolution sites, museums, and attractions provide an accessible and nuanced but nonetheless ideological presentation of the American Revolution, and with critical issues at stake: not only how we think of the Revolution itself but also its implications for contemporary American society.” Similarly to historians and politicians, museums and historical sites alike are no stranger to having the motivation to drive home limited
The compelling and infectious novel of Founding Brothers; The Revolutionary Generation written by Joseph J. Ellis combines our founding fathers weakness’ and strongest abilities in just six chapters. His six chapters tell the stories of: The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. This entertaining chapter describes how duels were undertaken and played out in that time, and helps the reader understand both men's motives. The dinner which Thomas Jefferson held for Alexander Hamilton and James
In the book Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, the author relates the stories of six crucial historic events that manage to capture the flavor and fervor of the revolutionary generation and its great leaders. While each chapter or story can be read separately and completely understood, they do relate to a broader common theme. One of Ellis' main purposes in writing the book was to illustrate the early stages and tribulations of the American government and its system through his use of well blended stories. The idea that a republican government of this nature was completely unprecedented is emphasized through out the book. Ellis discusses the unique problems that the revolutionary generation experienced as a result of governing under the new concept of a democracy. These problems included- the interpretation of constitutional powers, the regulation of governmental power through checks and balances, the first presidential elections, the surprising emergence of political parties, states rights vs. federal authority, and the issue of slavery in a otherwise free society. Ellis dives even deeper into the subject by exposing the readers to true insight of the major players of the founding generation. The book attempts to capture the ideals of the early revolutionary generation leaders and their conflicting political viewpoints. The personalities of Hamilton, Burr, Adams, Washington, Madison, and Jefferson are presented in great detail. Ellis exposes the reality of the internal and partisan conflict endured by each of these figures in relation to each other. Ellis emphasizes that despite these difficult hurdles, the young American nation survived its early stages because of its great collection of charismatic leaders and their ability to ...
The American Revolution has too often been dominated by the narrative of the founding fathers and has since been remembered as a “glorified cause.” However, the American Revolution was not a unified war but a civil war with many internal disputes that wreaked havoc and chaos throughout America. In his book, The Unknown American Resvolution, Gary B. Nash attempts to unveil the chaos that the American Revolution really was through the eyes of the people not in power, including women, African American slaves, and Native Americans. In his book, Gary B. Nash emphasizes their significance in history to recount the tale of the American Revolution not through the eyes of the privileged elite but through the eyes of the people who sacrificed and struggled the most, but were left forgotten, in their endeavors to reinvent America.
The author's twenty page preface details “The Generation”, which he asserts that despite current trends in scholarship, the real essence of the revolutionary era lies in the thoughts and deeds of this handful of Patriot elites, which had publicly pledged at great peril to their own lives and fortunes their undeniable support for the ideals of our founding documents. America's most famous (or infamous) duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is the backdrop for first chapter. This might lead one to think Ellis intends to move backward in time through the book, considering it occurred on July 11, 1804, however such is not the case as mentioned. Ellis does manage to present a fairly balanced view of the part played by both participants in the long war of words which finally led to the deadly showdown near Weehawken, New Jersey, providing an accounting of the historical scholarship on this well told chapter of our history.
Joseph J. Ellis is an American historian, and professor on the founding period of the United States. He is also the author of seven books including, “American Sphinx” and “Founding Brothers”. Both of which have won him a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, in respecting order. His book, Founding Brothers, was written for the general audience, more so students, scholars and anyone else interested in learning about how this country was constructed by our Founding Fathers. Ellis explores the great efforts each and every one of them put forth into this country. This book is a monographed oral history, because it is about one subject (the post-revolutionary time period of the United States) and it is of a sequence of events that occur in that certain time period. Ellis’ book is about a series of history events
Joyce, Appleby, et al. "The American Revolution." The American Vision. New York: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2005. 114-126. Print.
Joseph J. Ellis’s main points throughout the book is not only to describe the historical perspective and success of the founding fathers but also the personal emotions, joys, regrets, familiar tragedies and ultimately the final judgments they make about each other and the Revolution. “I wanted to write a modest-sized account in American history without tripping over the dead bodies of my many scholarly predecessors, hoped to render human and accessible that generation of political leaders customarily deified and capitalized as Founding Fathers”(ix).
James B. Gardner, “Contested Terrain: History, Museums, and the Public,” The Public Historian 26.4 (Fall 2004), 11-21
However, the author 's interpretations of Jefferson 's decisions and their connection to modern politics are intriguing, to say the least. In 1774, Jefferson penned A Summary View of the Rights of British America and, later, in 1775, drafted the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (Ellis 32-44). According to Ellis, the documents act as proof that Jefferson was insensitive to the constitutional complexities a Revolution held as his interpretation of otherwise important matters revolved around his “pattern of juvenile romanticism” (38). Evidently, the American colonies’ desire for independence from the mother country was a momentous decision that affected all thirteen colonies. However, in Ellis’ arguments, Thomas Jefferson’s writing at the time showed either his failure to acknowledge the severity of the situation or his disregard of the same. Accordingly, as written in the American Sphinx, Jefferson’s mannerisms in the first Continental Congress and Virginia evokes the picture of an adolescent instead of the thirty-year-old man he was at the time (Ellis 38). It is no wonder Ellis observes Thomas Jefferson as a founding father who was not only “wildly idealistic” but also possessed “extraordinary naivete” while advocating the notions of a Jeffersonian utopia that unrestrained
Every 4th of July, Americans are told the story of the American Revolution. We remember the oppressed colonists fighting against the tyrannical King George III and the formidable red coats. Patriotic heroes are remembered, evil kings are cursed, and the liberties and freedoms won from the war are celebrated. Though America often likes to look back to the revolution, the question of just how much a revolution was the American Revolution is rarely asked. While the American revolution was not as radical of a revolution as we like to remember today, it still changed the political, social, and ideological aspects substantially of the thirteen colonies. Americans deservedly have to rite to remember the revolution, regardless to the fact of if there was true reason to start one, as a true full fledged revolution.
When one explains his or her ingenious yet, enterprising interpretation, one views the nature of history from a single standpoint: motivation. In The American Revolution: A History, Gordon Wood, the author, explains the complexities and motivations of the people who partook in the American Revolution, and he shows the significance of numerous themes, that emerge during the American Revolution, such as democracy, discontent, tyranny, and independence. Wood’s interpretation, throughout his literary work, shows that the true nature of the American Revolution leads to the development of United State’s current government: a federal republic. Wood, the author, views the treatment of the American Revolution in the early twentieth century as scholastic yet, innovative and views the American Revolution’s true nature as
The American Revolution are three words that spark images of violent, bloody battlefields filled with injured soldiers, firing their guns, fighting to become a country. These are three words that even today, provoke a strong sense of patriotism and appreciation within the American heart. Men fought and died for us to have that feeling. They put their life on the line, so that someday we would be able to sing our National Anthem and know that without this war, we would not be one nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all…
Aside from the controversy surrounding the statues, the collection itself represents the ideas of conflict and ...
Schweikart, Larry, and Michael Allen. A Patriots History of the United States. Sentinel: Penguin inc., 2007. 529-532. Print.
A museum is “a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.” (dictionary.com). This is the literal definition of a museum as well as my view of them coming into my first semester of college. I believed they were boring, outdated places where historical items were displayed. As I moved through the semester, my professor helped me gain a new perspective of these remarkable museums; one of respect and astonishment. Museums are meant to aid in learning and safeguarding of things that should never be forgotten. Of the many great places I visited this semester that adjusted my feelings towards museums, the ones that had the greatest impact were The National Museum of Natural History, The Newseum, The National Gallery of Art, and The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. These places are there to remind the general public about things that should never be forgotten; they preserve the history and beauty of the world.