Rating: 
Summary: Never enough
Review: There are never enough good books about the Revolutionary War era. The key is the word "good" which must include something new. This is a highly respected book (so you can believe) with some new insights (at least for me). If you like the period and the men it covers, you can't go wrong. Plus, it's [inexpensive].
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Summary: Dont Be Fooled
Review: Dont be fooled by the, so called, Ph.Ds that have rated this book sub par. Most of the people that are well verse in history, as most of the negative reviewers are, are basing their review of the book on something that happened with the author personally. Dont let the author's personal life influence you not to read this great book. DONT BE FOOLED! Because they are bitter about this, you dont have to be.This books is far beyond the reviews that were offered by my history counterparts. If you have any interest in the colonial times and the disputes that happened during, before, and after the founding of this great country that you live in this book is for you! Every chapter has a great amount of information that is spell-binding to say the least. I could not put the book down. I highly recommend this book. A+++++++
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Summary: Good Survey, But Jefferson's Still the Star
Review: Founding Brothers is an enjoyable survey of key events in the establishment of a working Federal government in the years following the American Revolution. Unlike a standard history or biography, this book offers a series of thematically related vignettes. The first few, concerning the Hamilton/Burr duel and George Washington are fun (see Gore Vidal's Burr for a completely antithetical retelling of these events), and the slavery chapter interesting, but it is in the story of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams that this book really shines. As demonstrated at greater length in his earlier American Sphinx, Ellis has a particularly insightful take on Jefferson, and this retelling of the final years of his life is fascinating. While I don't think Ellis' bizarre public behavior in any way invalidates his excellent books, it seems likely that his insight into Jeffersonian paradox may spring from a shared temprament.
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Summary: Adams and Jefferson Worth the Read
Review: Not a great book but certainly a well written and thoughtful one. The early chapters on Hamilton, Burr, Washington, and Madison are interesting. However, for good storytelling and at times inspired observations buy the book for the last chapter on Adams and Jefferson. It left me concluding how remarkable it is that all the pieces came together and how these two very different personaltiies were able to articulate and build the foundation of the USA. Well worth the time and purchase price.
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Summary: Great book to introduce you to the era
Review: Ellis does a nice job on this one. Yes, he is a bit wordy, and you definately come away from this book with his strong opinions, but this book does a very nice job of introducing you to the revolutionary era. It is by no means comprehensive, and I don't think Ellis meant for it to be. But if you want to learn about the key personalities of the era, and use that as a starting point for learning more about these people, then this is a great way to start.
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Summary: "Voices that speak to us across the ages."
Review: Very rarely do I find a small book that combines outstanding writing style, historical accuracy, impartiality AND brevity. One such volume is the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis. This is an absolutely brilliant work, encapsulating in only 287 pages one of the most important and yet least understood eras in American history: the two decades immediately following the American Revolution. The years 1783-1804 were the most critical in our nation's history - the years immediately after the United States had gained its independence from Great Britain as a result of the American Revolution,. During these two decades bridging the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the United States, under the leadership of the same revolutionary "band of brothers" that had struggled to guide the fledgling American nation through six years of war against its colonial masters, embarked upon the great experiment of establishing a republican form of government free from the fetters of colonialism. During these formative years, the U.S. Constitution was adopted as the supreme law of the land; a republican form of government was established; and America began to take its place among the nations of the world. "Founding Brothers" examines this critical juncture in American history and asks: how did the United States succeed at its great experiment when so many other nations had failed? At the outset, Ellis points out a fundamental fact that we readers in the twenty-first century are likely to forget: that this was the first time in history that colonies had broken away from their imperial masters and successfully established a new nation. In Ellis's view, independence from Britain was probably inevitable, but had the Revolution not occurred when it did, independence would have in all likelihood evolved over the course of the nineteenth century. The Revolution did occur, however, and the American nation was successfully founded upon the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Why? "Founding Brothers" ascribes the success of the American enterprise primarily to the revolutionary generation of Abigail and John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. These seven men and one woman collectively formed the catalyst that led to the establishment of the new American nation. They were successful in part because they were an elite - they had been tried in the crucible of the Revolution and had been successful; they were intellectually and politically powerful; they knew each other; and they were aware of their contributions to posterity. Each chapter of "Founding Brothers" recounts an event in the lives of the people who made up the revolutionary generation. A few of those events are momentous; most are not. All of the events discussed in this book are examined in detail in the context of how the "founding brothers" reacted to them, and the effects of those events on the history of our nation. We learn what really led to the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and what happened on that fateful day. We discover the great compromise that led to the selection of the site nation's capital at its current location, along the banks of the Potomac; how "The Silence" - the lack of public debate over the issue of slavery, tacitly agreed to by both sides in the debate - was broken for a short time, and why. We observe George Washington as he prepares his Farewell Address to the nation, and come to a deeper understanding of why he eschewed a third term as President. We watch as partisanship marks the political landscape for the first time in 1796, when it became known that the Presidency was "up for grabs." We witness two lifelong friends - Thomas Jefferson and John Adams - become estranged from each other over deep political differences. And we see them reconcile through a decades-long correspondence after both had left the Presidency. It didn't take me long to read "Founding Brothers" from cover to cover... about 2½ days. It's an extraordinarily well written book! Joseph Ellis is a historian with an eloquent narrative gift. His prose never flags; it is always lively, informative and entertaining, even when he's analyzing events rather than narrating them. Ellis's judgments and analyses are excellent. He portrays the seven "founding brothers" (eight if you count Abigail Adams) in a generally sympathetic light, although he's careful to maintain a judicious balance. He repeatedly makes one particular point in "Founding Brothers" that I found especially salient. The "founding brothers" took the risk of gaining independence from Britain and establishing a new nation without any idea of what the future would bring. They were acutely aware that their actions would leave a legacy of some kind, but there was simply no paradigm to follow... no other revolution had ever been successful, and no other nation had ever been established upon the right of its citizens to self-government. We Americans of the twenty-first century have the luxury of looking back over two centuries of history; we know how successful their experiment was! Their lasting legacy to us is embodied in the fact that they willingly risked "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" without any idea of what the future would hold. "Founding Brothers" is one of the finest books on American history I've read in many years. Lively and entertaining, judicious in its approach, and completely respectful of its subject matter, this book is sure to appeal to all readers with a desire to learn more about the men and women who founded our great nation.
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Summary: An accessible delightful book on U.S. History
Review: All I remember of history from high school is a mind numbing litany of dates and names that was to be promptly forgotten after the exam. So what a delight it was that I accidentally picked up this slim volume by Joseph Ellis on the Founding Brothers. Several things delighted me about the book - but first, its impact. It has started me on a history reading streak that has not stopped 5 months later! - The book is a series of 6 vignetters about the interactions between the principals of the narrative. It was a great way to not only get to know about each of them but also the specific dynamics between each. - The vignettes are layered with increasing levels of meaning. You get the gist first. You get each of the participants take on the event. You get the context and then an overall synthesis in the context of the times, the principals and the events. - It is well written (i finished it in two sittings) - For me Jefferson emerged as a the most fascinating figure out of the "brothers" - although I genuinely admire Hamilton for his achievements (out of this account). A quick word on the fiercely negative reviews Mr. Ellis has received. None of the criticisms seem to be about flaws with the book itself - rather with Mr. Ellis. As a total novice in this arena, I can say that if you want a delightful introduction to a seminal piece of U.S History, this a highly recommended place to start.
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Summary: A Question of Character
Review: As a trained historian (Ph.D, 1976) whose professional life has gone far afield, occasionally I have the luxury of keeping up thru books on tape. After a couple of listens to Ellis's narrative, and knowing what we do now about the man's rather pervasive deceptions concerning his own biograpy, it came to me. The deceiving, dissembling, two-faced Jefferson of the American Sphinx and Founding Brothers, the man of seductive words with the split-personality, isn't Jefferson at all, it's Joe Ellis. Now you can say it takes one to know one, so this doesn't necessarily get Jefferson off the hook. But it's certainly clear that the key aspects of the author's much acclaimed interpretation of Jefferson's character focus on qualities endemic to Mr. Ellis's persona as super star intellectual and teacher of the young. You hear it said that the false identity Ellis projected to colleagues and students doesn't vitiate his scholarly works. Surely it's just the opposite. He's not writing about canal building or the impact of steam power. His chosen subject is character. His writing is filled with judgments, commendations and rebukes of a highly subjective nature. His claim to fame is his particular style of impugning Jefferson's character, character assination al la mode in todays intellectual climate. So I say, beware. Not because I'm after Mr. Ellis. But to stand up for Jefferson as the fountain head of values that sustained, motivated and inspired dozens of generations of Americans, myself among them. We were a new people in a new land, things could be different here. The world does belong to the living generation. We are free and able to remake it in the image of our fondest hopes and dreams. Ellis and his crowd would cut us off from this our birth right. He's a damaging and dangerous mind, a "head case" working out his own problems in the guise of historical portrait painting. He projects his own faults and self-disgust on the man who surely was the spiritual father of the Revolution -- the great visionary of the possibilities of American life.
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Summary: Pretentious
Review: I only read after starting this book that Ellis lied about having served in Vietnam. But just from the tone of the book, I'm not surprised he lied about having been in combat. The tone of the book is so POMPOUS and PRETENTIOUS and AFFECTED and the writing so FLORID. Ellis is obviously a showboat. If he's so grand in his writing, I can see how he would be grand as a person, to the point of lying about military service to puff his image up. That this book won the Pulitzer Prize is nauseating. Michael Chabon's novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" won the Pultizer Prize for best novel, and it's a pompous, pretentious, affected, contrived, florid piece of gooey pap. The Pulitzer judges must love phonines and contrived writing. I think I'll steer clear of the books they vote for from here on out.
Rating:
Summary: We Were Vulnerable
Review: The author's tactic of weaving his story around six episodes provides an entertaining experience for the reader. Ellis gives much emphasis to the flaws and failures of his heroes. The result is a balanced portrait of the formative period of the Republic and a greater appreciation for its vulnerability at that time.
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