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In Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis discusses how the relationships of the founding fathers shaped the United States, looking not only at what happened historically but the myths that have prevailed in modern times. I have few issues with this book one of which is that the narrative often jumps from one time and place to another, and while it provides the relevant information and keeps the reader’s attention, it can be hard to follow at times. In addition there are times were he explains the same incident more than once, which is distracting and unnecessary. Despite this Ellis supports his thesis well through stories of political and personal events between the founders, and clearly shows how it affected their treatment of each other. This shows why they fought and worked together the ways they did and why they left certain issues closed, and others open to later interpretation. I appreciate Ellis used journals, letters, newspapers and other public documents to see into the minds and lives of the founders, and the various quotes portray the depth of the founders’ feelings very well. Overall, while confusing at times, the book was engaging and displayed the Founding Fathers in a variety of lights adding to the books’ appeal. Ellis Starts off his book with a request to the reader to consider the American Revolution not only as how we see it today, but how it would of looked to the founders, and what actually happened. He introduces you to some of the key figures in the founding of our country and the idea that some of the founders found the successful creation of the United States as inevitable conclusion. Ellis highlights some of the dangers of what the founders did along with the improbability of the “miracle at Philadelphia”. H... ... middle of paper ... ...would be kept as historical record. Ellis sates that the way they use language is reflective of this and he states that “If he could only control himself, if he could speak the lines that history wanted to hear… he might yet win his ticket to immortality”. They still disagreed politically and had more arguments, but always reconciled quickly. Their letters showed off their skills as writers and they wrote in such a way as they thought history would expect of them. Eventually they started to discuss their own mortality and their hope to be reunited with their fellow founders soon. Rush’s prediction that the two would die at the same time was in fact accurate, the two died on July 3, 1826 just minutes apart. This ending to the book suggests to me that Ellis saw this as the death of the founding generation, though he has already stated that their influence lives on.
In Woody Holton's Forced Founders, that most revered segment of the revolutionary generation, the elitist gentry class of Virginia, comes across very much as a group of self-serving reactionaries, rather then the idealized revolutionaries of the great patriotic myth of popular history. He sets about disassembling a central portion of the myth created by earlier generations of Consensus historians, by asserting that rather then gallantly leading the charge for independence, Virginia's elitist gentry resorted to independence as their last and only means of saving their elite ruling status, their economic futures, and even their very lives many feared. While this is very much an example of revisionist history, Holton has not so much rewritten history, as he has provided the back story of the complexity and diversity of the Virginia colony on the eve of the American Revolution. For while the book's title may insinuate otherwise, lowly groups like slaves and Indians discussed here are afforded only the status of “founders” by pressing those traditionally thought of in this role to take the plunge for independence. Still the papers and correspondence of the iconic figureheads of the revolutionary generation like Washington, Jefferson, and Madison make up the bulk of primary sources.
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 authors go on to give an outstanding appreciation of his work as he states” Ellis clear prose, succinct expositions, and poignant observations make reading Founding Brothers highly rewarding” (Koschnik 274). The review as well goes on to expand on how Ellis writes about the characters in this book and their views on the topics. In the review he does discuss some cons that Ellis presents as he does state “Ellis cannot fully acknowledge the cultural imperatives that compelled these men to act as they did” (Koschnik) 275). As a result, the review ends with the book being flawed, but it does offer great information.
Gordon S. Wood. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Vintage; Reprint edition. March 2, 1993
In the book Founding Brothers written by Author Joseph J. Ellis, Mr. Ellis explains the challenges the founding brothers, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr faced as the Founding Brothers formed the newfangled government of the United States. Joseph Ellis uses a very well organized style splitting the book into seven sections, each telling a different story or series of events. And rather then just summarizes the entire sections one by one, this paper will tell the most important and significant events rather than just simply all the events. Mr. Ellis states that the reader will need to understand the events both on how they truly occurred, and how they were to be interpreted when later revealed. The book focuses on significant aspects of the revolutionary war as well as the influences each founding brother and their contributions to American history, and how this all helped shape America into what remains now. “Mostly Male, all white, this collection of public figures was hardly typical of the population as a whole: nor was it, on the other hand, a political
The essay under critical analysis is entitled, “Philadelphia’s Radical Caucus That Propelled Pennsylvania to Independence and Democracy,” written by Gary B. Nash. This analytical essay consumes the fourth chapter of the book Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation, edited by Alfred F. Young, Gary B. Nash, and Ray Raphael. His essay, along with the twenty-one other accounts in the book depicting lesser-known individuals, whose contributions in securing independence from Great Britain and creating a new government in America rival that of the nation’s more notorious and beloved founders, such as Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. Dr. Nash focuses his efforts on Philadelphia’s Radical Caucus of the 1770’s and 80’s and the lasting influences of the 1776 constitution it created within American politics as well as several nations around the world. Within his analysis and interpretation of Pennsylvanian politics during the American Revolution, Dr. Nash utilizes a pro-whiggish, radically sympathetic stance to assert the Radical Caucus’ remarkable ability to gain support from and bestow power upon the common working man, take political power from conservatives within Pennsylvania’s public offices, and revolutionize democratic thought through their landmark reformations of the state’s constitution. Respecting the fact that Dr. Nash’s position on this subject required extensive research through first hand accounts, pamphlets, newspapers and the analysis of countless preserved records, indicates that the account he has given is very credible. Complying with his presentation of facts and the significance of the topic within early American history has prevented a well-rounded counter-argument ...
I am doing my book review on the biography Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis, who is a professor at Mount Holyoke College and who also, has graduated from Yale University with his PhD. Ellis is also known for writing American Sphinx: the Character of Thomas Jefferson and American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. In Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation, Ellis explains many significant events that happened during the evolution of America.
In conclusion, Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis is a great composition of the events and individuals in the end and after the American Revolution. Ellis generates the point, that many of the stories recounted in this novel may have been slightly misconstrued by certain figures for personal benefit. He makes his point, again, by comparing and contrasting the different accounts, and attempts to piece together a whole
In What Did the Declaration Declare?, Joseph J. Ellis, an editor for history publications presents various historical perceptions on the analytical conception of this mythic text of American public life. The Declaration of Independence has enjoyed a long and useful career as an expression of "natural rights," providing Americans with an influential statement of their national doctrine. Thomas Jefferson had no reason to believe that he was writing a document that would become so revered throughout the ages. One may confirm the Declaration’s idealistic origins by examining Carl Becker’s enduring argument that the Declaration was an American product of the doctrines of John Locke. The Declaration was composed for a specific purpose. The members of the Continental Congress were more preoccupied with handling pressing military matters and meeting with delegates in the separate colonies, who were busy drafting and debating new state constitutions. This book by Ellis also provides a general, philosophical justification for revolution based on the colonist’s growing feeling of entitlement of Lockean rights.
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).
The early 1800’s were an unusual time in the history of the United States. A country in its infancy, growing, turbulent, and filled with intrigue where political and economic fortunes were made and lost overnight. While the country was founded on noble ideas---and no doubt these powerful ideas were taken seriously---how such ideas were to be put into practice created fertile ground for personal ambition and interest to be a stronger motivator than the “common good”. In fact, at times it appears that the ideas were little more than vehicles for the personal ambitions---and in the case of this story---the personal vendettas of powerful personalities.
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
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
Psychology is a social science that aims to study the mind and the behaviors of humans. It aims to understand what drives humans to act the way they do. It differs from sociology and anthropology in that it takes accounts the individual rather than society as a whole.
Our journey began in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Also known as George Washington’s home, the streets of Old Town appeared like the 1700’s, except for the cars parked on the street and people walking around with iPhones. As we walked the town, I could imagine what it must have been like for the early colonists. Here with not much more than faith and a heart for independence, they sowed seeds that we now reap today. Every building