Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic--John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

During the 1790s, which Ellis calls the most decisive decade in our nation's history, the greatest statesmen of their generation--and perhaps any--came together to define the new republic and direct its course for the coming centuries. Ellis focuses on six discrete moments that exemplify the most crucial issues facing the fragile new nation: Burr and Hamilton's deadly duel, and what may have really happened; Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison's secret dinner, during which the seat of the permanent capital was determined in exchange for passage of Hamilton's financial plan; Franklin's petition to end the "peculiar institution" of slavery--his last public act--and Madison's efforts to quash it; Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address, announcing his retirement from public office and offering his country some final advice; Adams's difficult term as Washington's successor and his alleged scheme to pass the presidency on to his son; and finally, Adams and Jefferson's renewed correspondence at the end of their lives, in which they compared their different views of the Revolution and its legacy.

In a lively and engaging narrative, Ellis recounts the sometimes collaborative, sometimes archly antagonistic interactions between these men, and shows us the private characters behind the public personas: Adams, the ever-combative iconoclast, whose closest political collaborator was his wife, Abigail; Burr, crafty, smooth, and one of the most despised public figures of his time; Hamilton, whose audacious manner and deep economic savvy masked his humble origins; Jefferson, renowned for his eloquence, but so reclusive and taciturn that he rarely spoke more than a few sentences in public; Madison, small, sickly, and paralyzingly shy, yet one of the most effective debaters of his generation; and the stiffly formal Washington, the ultimate realist, larger-than-life, and America's only truly indispensable figure.

Ellis argues that the checks and balances that permitted the infant American republic to endure were not primarily legal, constitutional, or institutional, but intensely personal, rooted in the dynamic interaction of leaders with quite different visions and values. Revisiting the old-fashioned idea that character matters, Founding Brothers informs our understanding of American politics--then and now--and gives us a new perspective on the unpredictable forces that shape history.

Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 10/17/2000
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.52h x 6.50w x 1.02d
ISBN: 9780375405440

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 12.8
Point Value: 22
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 49821 / Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation


Award: Pulitzer Prize - Winner
Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 06/01/2000 pg. 98
Publishers Weekly 09/11/2000 pg. 80
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2000 pg. 1252
Library Journal 10/15/2000 pg. 84
Business Week 11/27/2000 pg. 34
New York Times 12/10/2000 pg. 39
Choice 02/01/2001 pg. 1137
Booklist 09/15/2000 pg. 213
New York Times 12/02/2001 pg. 69
USA Today 12/18/2002 pg. 1
Library Journal 06/01/2000

About the Author
Joseph J. Ellis is the author of several books of American history, among them Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the 1997 National Book Award. He was educated at the College of William and Mary and Yale University and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with his wife, Ellen, and three sons.