- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Random House USA Inc (1 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0375405445
- ISBN-13: 978-0375405440
- Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 2.6 x 24.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 813,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Guardian, 2 March 2002
this short, engrossing, brilliantly coloured account. . . a work of deep scholarship successfully masquerading as popular history.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Independent,13 February 2002
This is a fine piece of historical analysis that can be read for pleasure - and how rare that is.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
On the morning of July 11, 1804, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were rowed across the Hudson River in separate boats to a secluded spot near Weehawken, New Jersey. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
On the morning of July 11, 1804, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were rowed across the Hudson River in separate boats to a secluded spot near Weehawken, New Jersey. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Ellis' work provides a series of snapshots that reveal some of the personal and political relationships that characterized the members of the revolutionary generation in the United States. Focusing on a few significant events, such as the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, Ellis illuminates each incident with enlightening context that, when combined into a unique anthology of revolutionary tales, provide an excellent introduction into the life of the nascent American republic and its early leaders. Well-written and gripping in its contents, Founding Brothers serves as an entertaining and informative work of early American history.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The reader will have gathered by now that this book looks at some of the more illustrious American revolutionaries: Washington, John Adams, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Burr and to a lesser extent, Franklin. One of the other reviewers calls it 'academic in tone', hardly a good description for what feels more like a professor knocking off a rather chatty essay in old-fashioned mainstream historical writing. Ellis has decidedly not come to bury the founders, although he appears to share the general low opinion of Aaron Burr, and he's interesting about Jefferson's remarkable capacity for self-deception.
As someone who knew very little about these figures, I was very surprised to learn about the depth and duration of some of the antagonisms between them. Everyday political discourse tends to conceal them behind a nimbus of reverence, and the rather stiff group portraits don't help. As a foreigner and an amateur student of US history, it was fascinating to read about the Adams-Jefferson split and subsequent reconciliation, or the power wielded by Abigail Adams during her husband's presidency, or the way that pretty much everyone seems to have hated Alexander Hamilton. The tenuous and uncertain nature of the first presidency, the way that most precedents had not yet been set, also comes across very clearly.
Having said that, I suppose I wanted this to be something that it's not - a comprehensive account of who all these men were, where they came from and how they came to believe what they believed. This reads more like a book written for people who already know the basic story. Ellis is a bit sniffy in his foreword with some of the more radical interpretations of early US history, and presents his book as a kind of return to the mainstream; given that the American intellectual mainstream is currently well to the right, I was expecting him to be more hero-worshipping than he actually is. In fact he's fairly level-headed about the failure of the men of '76 to tackle the problem of slavery, and while he shows the reasons why they couldn't build anti-slavery resolutions into the Constitution (because the crucial southern states wouldn't have gone for it), he's sharp about the way even the more enlightened amongst them were uncomfortable even thinking about the idea. (Except Benjamin Franklin, who came out as a tough-minded abolitionist only weeks before his death - cheers, Ben, bit late though.)
I'm not totally convinced that it's really Pulitzer material; aren't they meant to go to bigger, more magisterial works, not book-length essays? There's no original research here and not much in the way of fascinating reinterpretation, more like a confident and elegant restatement of conventional opinion. But maybe that in itself was a good idea.
As someone who knew very little about these figures, I was very surprised to learn about the depth and duration of some of the antagonisms between them. Everyday political discourse tends to conceal them behind a nimbus of reverence, and the rather stiff group portraits don't help. As a foreigner and an amateur student of US history, it was fascinating to read about the Adams-Jefferson split and subsequent reconciliation, or the power wielded by Abigail Adams during her husband's presidency, or the way that pretty much everyone seems to have hated Alexander Hamilton. The tenuous and uncertain nature of the first presidency, the way that most precedents had not yet been set, also comes across very clearly.
Having said that, I suppose I wanted this to be something that it's not - a comprehensive account of who all these men were, where they came from and how they came to believe what they believed. This reads more like a book written for people who already know the basic story. Ellis is a bit sniffy in his foreword with some of the more radical interpretations of early US history, and presents his book as a kind of return to the mainstream; given that the American intellectual mainstream is currently well to the right, I was expecting him to be more hero-worshipping than he actually is. In fact he's fairly level-headed about the failure of the men of '76 to tackle the problem of slavery, and while he shows the reasons why they couldn't build anti-slavery resolutions into the Constitution (because the crucial southern states wouldn't have gone for it), he's sharp about the way even the more enlightened amongst them were uncomfortable even thinking about the idea. (Except Benjamin Franklin, who came out as a tough-minded abolitionist only weeks before his death - cheers, Ben, bit late though.)
I'm not totally convinced that it's really Pulitzer material; aren't they meant to go to bigger, more magisterial works, not book-length essays? There's no original research here and not much in the way of fascinating reinterpretation, more like a confident and elegant restatement of conventional opinion. But maybe that in itself was a good idea.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author brings insight and clarity to both the individuality of the characters, and by so doing peels away at the layers of mythology that becloud our vision of them, and their brilliant leadership. But perhaps of greater value to us today, the author presents insight into the necessary processes required to bring together disparate groups of peoples with differing philosophies and religions toward building a United nation with tolerance and accommodating all differences. The genius and the force of their leadership at the foundation of the American experience of building itself as a nation cries out to be understood and appreciated by the leaders (and those who elect them) of the same nation today. The genius of the Founding Borthers stands in stark contrast to the glaring absence of qualities of leadership today. An appreciation of this foundation experience, as well as the Civil War experience, I think are basic to an understanding of the character of the American nation and its role in the world today.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Founding Brothers
Um livro interessante e cativante que nos dá uma prespectiva humana dos Pais fundadores e de como eles tentaram fundar um novo país sobre novos princípios e... Read more
Published on 12 May 2009 by Vasco Manuel Baptista
A Unique Brotherhood!
"Founding Brothers" introducess the reader to the unique brotherhood which created, not only a revolution, but also a durable republic. Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2006 by James Gallen
A noble fraternity
Prior to writing this book, 'Founding Brothers', author Joseph J. Ellis wrote books on both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson - hence it makes sense that there would be one book that... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2005 by Kurt Messick
academic in tone, but essential reading for early America
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Instead of trying to tell a sweeping account of the American Revolution and the early days of our Republic, Joseph Ellis took a different... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2004 by Joe Sherry
Transformation from Friendly Brothers to Feuding Rivals
Anyone who enjoyed David McCullough's biography of John Adams will find this book to be a rewarding companion, which fills in important missing pieces about the foundation and... Read more
Published on 9 July 2004 by Donald Mitchell
Transformation from Friendly Brothers to Feuding Rivals
Anyone who enjoyed David McCullough's biography of John Adams will find this book to be a rewarding companion, which fills in important missing pieces about the foundation and... Read more
Published on 9 July 2004 by Donald Mitchell
Founding fathers & political rivals in newborn Republic
This book is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for good reason. Author Joseph J. Ellis offers intimate portraits of our nation's founding fathers and also a vivid view of the... Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2004 by Bert Ruiz
Unconventional but worth persevering
If you want a conventional biography of the founding fathers, then this isn't the book for you. It certainly presumes that you're American and learned a lot about the subjects at... Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2003 by Keith Appleyard
A fabulously written and painstakenly researched book
If you are interested in the founding fathers then I commend this truely brilliant book to you. It deals with a number of issues and situations that they strove to deal at that... Read more
Published on 12 July 2003 by D. W. Gilligan
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