Rating: Summary: not good Review: this book was by far one of the most boring books i have ever read in my life. do not purchase it.
Rating: Summary: Horrible. Absolutely horrible. Review: First of all, Ellis's writing style is blatantly redundant and needlessly explicit in terms of describing history. While initially intriguing, his examinations of the inner workings of our nation's founding fathers are quite often self-contradictory ramblings that assume of the reader an extraordinary level of erudition regarding the revolutionary period. The author's very limited, albeit still pretentious, locution is repeated ad nauseam throughout the pages of this historical debacle. What attempts to offer a unique perspective of the traditionally demagogic historical figures of the United States often focuses rather upon irrelevant and sensationalistic trivialities that fabricate and enforce a negative image of our American heroes through repetitive accounts of hostility and isolationism. This eventually leads the reader into a declivity of tedious monotony that dedicates the final third merely to the painfully tiresome and inconsequential post-presidential relationship between Jefferson and Adams. Opening under a facade of an entertaining yet intellectual and novel history of the revolutionary generation, Ellis quickly disproves this falsehood by engaging in a mockery of all that is entertaining, intellectual, novel, or historical in literature. This book is a complete failure, and it should not continue to pollute the shelves of our libraries and bookstores.
Rating: Summary: Founding Brothers is a great read! Review: Even if you don't enjoy history, you are going to like this book. It gives you several stoys about the founding fathers that are both entertaining and very informative. It made me want to read more about the revolution and american history ingeneral. I would highly sugest this book to the historian or the casual reader. Either one would not be disapointed.
Rating: Summary: detailed account of our Founding Fathers Review: I thought this was a great book. It gives the reader a detailed account of the tender care that the Founding Fathers showed for the new and immature country. This care was vital to the survival of the Country. The chapter entitled the Duel is the most interesting chapter in the book but although each chapter may go a little too long they are all worth reading. Much significance is put into the relationships of the founding fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison. Anyone interested in reading a detailed account of the birth of our country should read this book.
Rating: Summary: An extraordinarily readable, innovative work Review: Interest in the Revolutionary generation never fades, and our fascination with Franklin, Washington, Sam and John Adams, Hamilton, Madison, and Jefferson never seems to wane nor does our interest flag. But it remains an important national task to rediscover the founding fathers anew and in our own way. FOUNDING BROTHERS achieves a fresh appreciation of the Revolutionary generation by managing to be several things at once. First, it is popular history in the best possible sense, in that while written to entertain and targeted perhaps even more to nonacademics than professional historians, Joseph Ellis never oversimplifies the issues he takes up. Second, the book focuses on a number of key moments in early United States history that Ellis employs as heuristic devices for exploring a number of related issues, moments such as the duel between Hamilton and Burr, the circumstances surrounding Washington's Farewell Address, Jefferson's bringing Madison and Hamilton together to broker an understanding on how to handle the national debt, the question of slavery, and the intricacies of the friendship/conflict between Jefferson and John Adams. Third, the book employs a fascinating structuring device that both provides the framework for the work as a whole, and illumines all of the issues mentioned above. Ellis emphasizes that there were, in a sense, two Revolutions: the first in 1776, which stressed the radical freedom of every individual from oppression by any government, whether tyrannical or benevolent, and a second in 1789 with the formation of a constitutional form of representative democracy. Ellis relates all the major figures of the Revolutionary period to this distinction between the two different revolutions. For Washington, for instance, the second revolution possesses the greater significance, because the government that it authorizes and creates is in his belief essential for the possibility of creating a genuine nation. Hamilton, Franklin, and Adams also, in Ellis's account, lean towards this view (Hamilton more than anyone). Madison, on the other hand, although the chief architect of the 1789 revolution, quickly is shown as having a change of heart, and rather quickly distances himself from a view seeing a strong central government as crucial, and begins to work instead for decentralization and an emphasis on local control, i.e., the Revolution of 1776. Jefferson is appropriately shown as the foremost proponent of the 1776 Revolution, and its greatest apologist. Thesis aside, the greatest value of the book is the brilliant way that Ellis brings the differences between the various founders, and helps us to see how while for us these have been conflicts and controversies that were solved long ago, for them they were burning, open-ended, undecided questions. For them the outcome was not necessary, but contingent. The book is not without its quirks. Ellis clearly views Jefferson as, in today's terms, severely neurotic. He also clearly prefers Adams as a person and as a thinker. I found all his discussions of Jefferson to be the weakest parts of the book, which I found surprising given the fact that he not too long ago won a National Book Award for a biography of Jefferson. Nonetheless, even when one would differ with Ellis, he manages to illuminate all he discusses. And on top of that, he manages to entertain enormously.
Rating: Summary: Good, Breezy intro to our Founding Fathers. Review: Founding Fathers for dummies. If you want an easy intro the Revolutionary Generation this a good place to start. A good warm up for McCullough's John Adams.
Rating: Summary: Interesting perspective of early American history. Review: As someone who loves American history, this book is one of the great reads in the past few years. Of all the books that have recently come out dealing with the Revolutionary period, Founding Brothers offers varied and interesting insights into the painful emergence of the United States as a unique country with an untested form of government. What further drew me into the book is the in-depth examination of the various relationships between the people who are now considered to be in the pantheon of Great Americans. Despite of how they are revered in today's world, it also delves into the fact that none of them were complete angels either. I also quite enjoyed Joseph Ellis' eloquence in the book. I sincerely hope he comes out with a continuation of this subject or do something along these lines but with people from the other eras of American history. Great book and a must for any serious historian or lover of American history.
Rating: Summary: Very Good! People, Ideas and Circumstances. Review: As children in school we tended to be taught about the Revolutionary War generation in simple and clean terms. We were told that Jefferson did this and Washington did that, without ever really understanding what was transpiring under the surface. Ellis', "Founding Brothers", is one of those books that does detail, in human terms, what indeed was taking place at this time. Tom Brokaw wrote of "The Greatest Generation" being the World War II era Americans, and it would be difficult to argue with that; but these first Americans, those that could for the first time truly call themselves Americans, this revolutionary bunch, were without a doubt, the most important and dynamic generation ever. In the book, Ellis takes a handful of events and demonstrates how the characters and situations played out to their well-known outcomes; from Hamilton's financial blueprints for the new nation being factored in the finagling of a location for our capitol, to some noted particulars that took place before and at the famous Hamilton-Burr duel, to Washington's swan song, to Adams' presidency and the ugly politics that attacked it, and of the reconciliation of two old nation builders- Ellis' book details. I especially enjoyed the material that discussed the renewed friendship and letter writing between Adams and Jefferson. Ellis does a nice job describing what went into their thinking as they corresponded back and forth to each other on many subjects. In particular, they foresaw down the road the possible end to their new American experiment over slavery. Adams and Jefferson shared the same spirit and concern for getting this new nation started and the vision they had for it, but once established they differed in their approaches of developing it. Jefferson's view won out in the overall, but Adams was right in what was needed to attain it. The two will forever be soul mates in the annals of human civilization. Indeed, I think Ellis states that the two "completed each other." After reading the book and thinking about that time period, I begin to wonder if it was just a case of having the right ingredients present at the right time- at the same time. Looking at the general picture of how nations and civilizations came into being throughout history and the nature of humans, one can truly appreciate what these "Founding Brothers" really did. Incredible!
Rating: Summary: By the Skin of Our Teeth Review: Forget Parson Weems and the cherry tree. Forget the mechanical wonders of Monticello. Forget the powdered wigs and the wooden teeth and the stately poses. This is the beginning of American history as it really was -- and apparently not all those truths were quite so self-evident in the end. Joseph Ellis' FOUNDING BROTHERS is by far the best book I have read about the founding fathers (for a close second, see Gore Vidal's mischievous novel BURR). America's hard-fought liberty was no waltz, even after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown and even after the Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution. Ellis shows that we just squeaked by, by the skin of our teeth. The French Revolution, for example, shook our young country to the core. Some well-known leaders (like Jefferson) were all for supporting the French even if it meant fighting England again. Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts, the XYZ Affair with its (surprisingly contemporary) undertones of bribery and scandal, and England's unwillingness to see us as a separate nation -- all made the approach of the 1800 election a make-or-break affair for the young nation. Then there was slavery. As early as 1790, abolitionists almost precipitated the immediate secession of South Carolina and Georgia. The only way the fracas was delayed was that Congress agreed to disagree and not do anything about it until the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In the meantime, the United States had grown stronger and was less likely to split apart at the seams. Despite the history textbooks, Thomas Jefferson does not emerge as one of the good guys of our early years. He had an ability to speak out of both sides of his mouth and flood the media with spin that would make his fortune in today's DC scene. His attacks on John Adams while professing friendship are a model for contemporary sleazebag politicians. (There is a fascinating coda: After Jefferson left the presidency in 1809, he and Adams picked up their friendship where it left off -- and both men died within 5 hours of each other on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence!) Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who for some reason are at the beginning of the book, were both sleazebags of a sort. If Burr hadn't shot him in a duel, Hamilton's reputation may well have taken a dive on the basis of his shady maneuverings. And by winning the duel, Burr paradoxically was the big loser. It is not Burr's picture that appears on the $10.00 bill. Curiously, George Washington comes off the best of the founding fathers. Although he was not the world's greatest military leader, there was a universal feeling that if there should be a first president of the United States, it would have to be either George or no one. Except for some contretemps in his second term (the Whiskey Rebellion, for example), George left office smelling as sweetly as he did the day he took office. And his "Farewell Address" (it was never actually delivered, just printed in newspapers) showed that his vision for the 20 years following the presidency was dead right. This is a tremendously entertaining work as well as an enlightening one. A superb read that easily deserved its Pulitzer Prize.
Rating: Summary: Welcome To The Family Review: Founding Brothers is a wonderful reintroduction to the early years of the United States and a fascinating portrait of the men (and one woman) whose conflicting, sometimes shifting beliefs came together to shape the direction of our republic. Broken into six easily readable chapters, Ellis's narrative manages to show the founding fathers as real -- albeit extraordinary -- people, each with his own idiosyncrasies. Historical figures that had all but merged together in my mind since high school history classes I now see as distinct individuals with separate ideals, flaws, and ambitions. Ellis is at his best describing the relationships between the founding fathers: the friendships, the rivalries, and the personal conflicts. In doing so, Ellis makes the founding fathers resemble one big dysfunctional family. His favorite characters seem to be those who left the most for the historical record (Monroe, Adams), while Franklin plays a minor role and Jefferson comes across as something between hypocritical and schizophrenic. The few weaknesses of Founding Brothers are easily overlooked. Ellis struggles to describe the cancerous effect of slavery on the young republic, often attempting to clarify his logic in the book's endnotes. He also has a habit of alluding to relationships or events that he only fully develops in later chapters, sometimes leading to a disjointed chronology. Ellis's style is perfect for a generalist audience. He lets the founding fathers speak for themselves, then follows these 18th century quotes with modern translations or his own interpretation. I had gotten to know the characters so well that when Jefferson and then Adams died in the final chapter, I regretted the time they had spent angry at each other and felt a sense of loss, as if I had recently rediscovered missing relatives only to have them disappear once again so soon thereafter.
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