Founding Brothers

Rating:
Summary: Over-written, in my view.
Review: The propitious events about which Professor Ellis offers his finely honed observations were without the slightest doubt of seminal importance to the tenuous survival of our fledgling nation as it struggled toward its grand destiny, and his meticulously detailed analyses and provocative speculations will appeal to all hearty readers who, like Professor Ellis, have never met a noun that would fail to benefit from a well-chosen - or even not so well-chosen - adjective. His meticulously detailed analyses and provocative speculations will also appeal to all readers who, like Professor Ellis, are aware of the meaning of the word "succinct" yet find this demanding word, or better, the very concept, completely inapplicable to the crucial task of delving into the underlying, if not wholly concealed, motives of the towering, near-mythic figures of our revolutionary era who had their own competing visions of what they hoped would be the enduring history of their unprecedented experiment with a republican form of government. Incidentally, if you purchase the book in an audio format, please exercise care when listening to it while driving. I found it to induce drowsiness after about 10 minutes.

Rating:
Summary: Tedious Overanalysis
Review: The events portrayed in this book were undoubtedly of tantamount importance to the formation of our government by the founders, but
I doubt the founders themselves could have slogged through this tedious, overanalytic account of their actions. The author's ability to stretch the story beyond all human endurance to read it and stay interested is phenomenal. I hung on through chapter two, the end of at which point I realized that there are much better history books out there that are worth spending your time on. Read Mccullough's John Adams instead, it's well worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction
Review: This is a fascinating modern introduction to the founding fathers. The writing is superb. I suspect the criticism about his writing below comes from reviewers whom are either not serious readers or are tackling this book too early in their reading career.

The book is split into six sections, the first by far the weakest (too much about the duel itself). The intro and sections 2-6 [...] into a quest to learn everything about the founders I could. You will want to learn more after this book and you will trust Ellis as a guide with his excellent bibliography.

Some tantilizing tidbits:
1. President Adams thought Hamilton's behind the scenes manuevering to raise an army in response to French agression was a ploy to make himself an American Napolean. In reality Hamilton wanted to lead a campaign down to South America in order to kick out the Spanish and all other European influences.

2. In the last half of President Adam's term his vice president, Jefferson paid off smear-mongers to sully Adam's reputation. Just before the election, Hamilton, prefering Jefferson over Adams, openly penned a character assasination of Adams. Hamilton's work contributed to Adam's ouster, the end of his own career, and the new administration of Jefferson as president and Aaron Burr as vice-president Burr would go on to kill Hamilton in a duel.

3. Jefferson was delegated the task of writing the Declaration of Indepence, it was not a top priority... independence was a fait accompli.

All this stuff jumps out of memory after reading Ellis' book.



Rating:
Summary: This book rambles on about simple stuff
Review: Joseph Ellis is one of the worst writers in history I think. The simple concepts he writes about can be easily explained in about 5 pages, but no, he will write 50+ pages on nothing!! Do I really care what Hamilton was wearing when he woke up on the morning of the duel? No. Do I care how many people rowed his boat? Again NO!! He may have some good facts but they are all so irrelevant to anything that it becomes boring and tedious to read. The only reason I read this was for my honors history class. My advice is to read the first couple of pages and the last couple of each chapter, that sums up everything. Everything in between is filler, total and utter [...].

Rating:
Summary: Blegh yuck
Review: This book is badly written, and the language is completely foggy. This guy can go on and on about a simple concept, and jeez it's almost as though he is ranting on about the first thing that comes to mind in big words. His writing technique seems to be to interrupt every sentence w/ foggy off the subject information in perenthesis. By the time you figure out what the hell he is talking about, you forget what the sentence was about in the first place. Have you ever talked to someone who began telling you a story but then interrupted it 85 times w/ other small events? It's like that. Must he include EVERY thought that came into his mind while writing?

Rating:
Summary: A must read for all Americans
Review: This book is a must read for all Americans, especially those who are interested in the history of the revolutionary war era. This book, through original research, sheds light on events that our history teachers only glance over in school. Typical teachings of this subject matter fail to go into the detail that Ellis has with this book. He examines not only events, but the individual traits that affected the outcome of the era. Ellis covers six important historial events in this book:

1. The Duel - The events surrounding and leading up to the famous duel between Aaorn Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Ellis examines historical documents to determine the intent of the two men and why the duel ended with Hamilton's death.
2. The Dinner - Thomas Jefferson brokers a deal between Alexander Hamilton, who wanted the federal government to assume state debts after the war, and James Madison, who wanted to ensure the new federal capital would be on the Potomac River.
3. The Silence - In order to get Southern states to ratify the Constitution, the Nothern states proposed not to address the issue of slavery for 20 years. However, after 3, the Quakers petitioned the new Congress to abolish the practice.
4. The Farewell - Washington's Farewell Address, written by Alexander Hamilton at the request of President Washington.
5. The Collaborators - The relationship between John Adamns and his wife, Abagail.
6. The Friendship - The re-establishment of friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

While some may be disappointed that these stories show that the founding fathers were just as flawed as politicans today, it is important to understand the truth about what happened, rather than have a fairy tale understanding that reflects more myth than truth. Perhaps the realization that the revolution was not as inevitable as some believe, will allow people to have a better understanding an appreciation for the government as it exists today. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: Very insightful look at post-Revolutionary period
Review: The Revolutionary War certainly united most of the colonists against the oppressive measures visited upon them by the mother country. But beginning with the Constitutional period fissures appeared in that unity. Without the demands of war narrowing the focus, it became evident that the meaning of the revolution differed among the colonists. The main political groupings were the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, later to be known as the Republicans. Many of the mythic figures from the founding era, or in the words of the author: the "founding brothers," were leaders of those two factions that determined the direction that the new nation took in the 1790s and into the 19th century.


Not only does "Founding Brothers" examine key ideas and issues of the early republic, but it also looks at the personality and character of the key political actors of the time, those being John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. The author uses several incidents: the Hamilton-Burr duel in 1804, a Hamilton-Madison dinner arranged by Jefferson in 1790, the introduction of abolitionist petitions into Congress, also in 1790, Washington's Farewell Address of 1796, the presidential election of 1796, and the fourteen year correspondence of Jefferson and Adams at the end of their lives as stepping off points to examine the issues of the day, especially in terms of their support or deviation from republican principles. Such issues as the centralization of power, the role of the "many" versus elites, business and urban interests versus those of farmers, foreign relations with England and France, the presence and influence of political parties, and freedom to criticize the government were vigorously debated. The author also describes the convenient shelving of the slavery issue because of its volatility.


The book is hardly exhaustive in its examination of various issues and personalities, although the insight provided is not to be minimized. The author is not bent on casting any of the principals in an especially bad light, but the warts are there: the aloofness of Washington, the abrasiveness of Adams, the aggressiveness of Hamilton, and the deceptions and fantasies of Jefferson. But clearly the author finds their contributions to the early years of the republic as outweighing any flaws.


Frankly, it is rather puzzling to see the book being denigrated by some reviewers. It was not intended to be an exhaustive tome of a period, episode, or individual. If anything the book will undoubtedly stimulate some to indulge in further reading, although it stands on its own as a source of information. The reconstruction of the Hamilton-Burr duel and various interactions of Adams and Jefferson are the highlights of the book.



Rating:
Summary: READ THIS!..THE TRUTH ABOUT FOUNDING BROS.
Review: Everyone please read this and I mean it, this is the truth about Founding Brothers. This book is absolutely dreadful. Unless you are a huge history buff, and I mean huge, this book is a waste of time, money, and energy. Ellis does a horrible job saying what he has to say. It takes him about 50 pages to make a point that can be done in 5. Don't read this book. I like history, especially the American Revolution, but this book has no way increased my interest, if anything decrease, or taught me something. There's only one word that can describe this book: BAD.