"They comprised the greatest generation of political talent in American history. They created the American republic, then held it together throughout the volatile and vulnerable early years by sustaining their presence until national habits and customs took root."

***

For anyone interested in the earliest days of the American republic, this book is a must-read. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Ellis transports us to the tumultuous years after the Revolutionary War, during which our Founding Fathers laid the foundation for our republican government. Ellis organizes the book by a series of major political moments of the time -- the Hamilton-Burr duel of 1804, the Compromise of 1790, the debates over Jay's Treaty and the abolition of the slave trade, George Washington's resignation, the unprecedented Election of 1800, and the complicated relationship between Adams and Jefferson that characterized much of our early history -- thoroughly exploring the political and interpersonal implications of each. The result is a beautifully comprehensive and engaging narrative about our country's foundation and its legacy.

Ellis excels marvelously at bringing these historic moments to life. He puts us in the minds of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr as they made their way to Weehawken, New Jersey the morning of July 11, 1804, the day that would mark the culmination of their years-long political animosity. But Ellis does much more than recall the events of that day: he details the many years of conflict that preceded it, allowing us to understand both the historical context and long-term ramifications of the famous duel. "The real significance of the duel lies beyond the parameters of the event ... it expands to encompass an entire but still emerging world that Burr threatened and Hamilton believed himself to be defending," Ellis writes. "Both Burr and Hamilton thought of themselves as great men who happened to come of age at one of those strategic points in the campaign in history called the American revolutionary era." He goes on, "Neither had much of a political future -- but by being there [for the duel] they made a statement about the fate of their time. Honor mattered because character mattered ... [America] required honorable and virtuous leaders to endure. Both came to the duel because they wished to be regarded as such company."

Ellis goes on to describe some of the most divisive debates that faced the founders during the early republic, notably the Compromise of 1790 and the fight over the abolition of the slave trade. The former centered on the decision to have the federal government pay all state debts -- in which Hamilton prevailed over Jefferson and Madison. The author takes us to a dinner Jefferson hosted in the summer of 1790, during which he considered the bargain he made with Hamilton on this issue to be "the worst mistake of his life." Ellis writes, "The Compromise of 1790 is most famous for averting a political crises that many statesmen of the time considered a threat to the survival of the infant republic. But it also exposed the incompatible expectations of America's future that animated these same statesmen."

That same year, a Quaker petition asking for the abolition of the slave trade -- an issue that had already been codified in the Constitution to remain intact until at least 1808 -- ignited a long and contentious debate over slavery that predated the one that would come half a century later. This petition, led by statesman Benjamin Franklin (to whom Ellis referred as the second "American pantheon" beyond George Washington), claimed that "slavery was incompatible with the values of the new republic." While the Northern states all made slavery illegal in their constitutions by the turn of the century, the expansion of slavery to the West and the future of slavery in the South were uncertain. As Ellis explains, Congress in 1790 resolved that it didn't have the authority to deal with emancipation, "one glaring piece of unfinished business in the revolutionary era." His exploration of this debate is a crucial reminder that the founders were prescient in their recognition that the debate over slavery would come to one day define the future of the nation.

Beyond the congressional debates that characterized the new republic, Ellis highlights the watershed moment in 1796 when George Washington announced his resignation (interestingly enough, in a Philadelphia newspaper and not in an official farewell address). The "constitutional significance struck immediately ... [but] that landmark principle paled in comparison to an even more elemental and psychological realization: for twenty years, over the entire lifespan of the revolutionary war and the experiment with republican government, Washington had stood at the helm of the ship of state." Washington's decision to not seek reelection paved the way for the Election of 1796 and the revolutionary Election of 1800, which marked the zenith of the political rivalry between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Ellis spends the final portion of the book on the complicated relationship between the two men, noting their uncanny deaths "within five hours of each other on the 50th anniversary to the day -- and almost to the hour -- of the official announcement of American independence to the world in 1776." Ellis details the decades of ideological conflict that marked the relationship between Adams and Jefferson. "There is no question that the emotional bond between the two patriarchs was restored and the friendship recovered toward the end. They no longer had to pose as partners ... in part, the bonding occurred because the correspondence of their twilight years permitted both sages to confront and argue out their different notions of the history they had lived and made together," Ellis wrote. "One would like to believe that ... they completed each other. That only when joined could the pieces of the American revolution come together to make a whole. But the more mundane truth is that they never faced, and therefore never fully resolved, all their political differences. They simply outlived them."

Joseph Ellis's book is an excellent history of the nascent republic and the brilliant political minds that comprised it. It underscores the divisiveness that has characterized American politics from the foundation of our country, reminding us that ideological conflict has always been part of our democracy. "When it came to slavery, there was no singular vision -- only contradictory intentions. The dominant legacy, of course, was avoidance and silence." This Pulitzer Prize-winning book sheds light on some of America's greatest statesmen and the indelible mark they left on our republic. Five stars!

Six brief but detailed vignettes of American history featuring some of our more recognizable founding fathers or brothers as the title indicates, depicting events occurring during their attempt at creating a united government during America's perilous journey to independence. No time like the present for Americans to appreciate this most difficult task!
Most are familiar with the facts of the American revolution but what makes this so interesting and I think important, is it is a more personal, intimate, fly-on-the- wall look at the participants and events;
“If hindsight enhances our appreciation for the solidity and stability, it also blinds us to the truly stunning improbability of the achievement itself . - The very term American Revolution propagates a wholly fictional national coherence not present at the moment and only discernible in latent form by historians engaged in after-the- fact appraisals of how it could possibly turned out so well”

In reading the few negative reviews the main complaint seemed to be that it contains big words. I can confirm, yes it does contain big words. So if you are not a fan of big words I would look elsewhere. However, if you like big words or own a dictionary this is an interesting readable bit of American history.

Joseph Ellis is right up there with Ron Chernow and David McCullough as one of the greatest writers of American History. He's captivating and definitely knows how to tell a story. This book takes different snippets in history surrounding several of the founders and simply tells stories. Although you may be familiar with many of the stories being told, Ellis still manages to captivate. I really enjoyed the section about the discussions of slavery (or lack of discussion) in the first years of our country. There certainly were some slow points and a few times Ellis seems to include apocryphal details like George Washington throwing a coin or stone across the Potomac. Overall, however, I really enjoyed this book and always seem to find Ellis' work quick and interesting reads.

Mr. Ellis breathed life into history and historical figures. I came away realizing how very precarious our republic's birth had been, how politics has been a putrid cesspool since its inception, and how very admirable and flawed the early patriots were.

I've always admired George Washington, and I had more reason to after realizing how forward-thinking and particularly Western his view of the future was for the United States. He saw countrymen free of monarchies and caste systems, with liberty as the foundation.

"The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epoch when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period... At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own. – George Washington, Circular to the States, June 8, 1783

I was aware, before reading this book, that John Adams and Abigail Smith had a warm, working marriage, but I hadn't read their letters to one another, and I appreciated the excerpts Ellis shared:

[During the months Congress was in session they wrote each other two or three times every week. Much of the correspondence was playfully personal: “No man even if he is sixty years of age ought to have more than three months at a time from his family,” Abigail complained soon after he departed for Philadelphia. “Oh that I had a bosom to lean my head upon,” Adams replied. “But how dare you hint or lisp a word about ‘sixty years of age.’ If I were near I would soon convince you that I am not above forty.”]

I highly recommend the book to historians and those interested in the founding of the United States.

Not exactly a quick read, but fantastic nonetheless - I’m a huge fan of Joseph J. Ellis and was really glad to have found a signed copy of this at a used bookstore.

This book does a fantastic job of humanizing the founding fathers and showing the messy relationships between them, proving that politics have kind of always been as bitter and divisive as they are now.

I particularly loved the last chapter on the complicated friendship between Jefferson and Adams. It was really eye-opening to me that the very heroic and easily digestible version of the revolution that we were all taught in schools was actively being pushed by Jefferson within his lifetime, hoping to cement his own spotlight in this romantic version of our founding.

Adams tried to fight back against it, but the more realistic and complicated version of the story was just not as appealing to the wider population and the historians that came after. This is definitely one of my favorite books about the early history of the U.S.

Joseph Ellis sets out to depict the Founding Brothers (Washington, Jefferson, Burr, Hamilton, Franklin, Monroe and Adams) in what you may call their true light. Though the actions of this small group of political elites have left their mark our American history they were like you and I merely people with the some of the same flaws. Ellis does an excellent job of taking this group of extraordinary men and providing everyday insight into their lives, successes, and squabbles and helps to decode how their everyday lives, actions, and flaws, shaped the early part of American history including the first three presidencies.
Overall this is an excellent read, yet please be warned, Ellis' ability to tell the story through the eyes of the men living it, creates albeit interesting and insightful, yet sometimes slow or dense reading of the events from the horses mouth. Ellis however, has an elegant simplicity about his summaries of what these men were actually saying to one-another that one can't help but see parallels in today's world.

Imagine a collection of magnets confined in a small container. Depending upon their positioning, these magnets are at times drawn together or split apart with dramatic force. They can form beautiful and elegant arrangements or violently bounce off one another to perpetually alter their surroundings. To me, this helps describe the relationships between the most politically enlightened people in the history of the world.

Ellis's work looks at how the friendships, rivalries, feuds, arguments, debates, and duels shaped the founding of the United States. Most readers are familiar with the brilliance of the Founders but few may know much about their character. It is truly remarkable that these individuals would be gathered together in a particular time, particular place, and under particular circumstances. These magnets did much more than create a new order, their relationships and interactions exploded into a big bang of political freedom, liberty, and identity.

The chapters in Founding Brothers read more like a collection of essays rather than sections of a chronological study. This organization works quite well as it gives each relationship its own identity and allows traces of a previous chapter to be felt in subsequent pages. What is hit or miss in Founding Brothers is Ellis's prose. At times his writing is magisterial and captures the romance and intellect that the pantheon of American founders brought forth in the creation of our republic. There are other times when Ellis tries to outsmart the reader (and maybe himself) with overly long sentences crammed with esoteric superlative descriptions of the Founders' actions, behaviors, and feelings. While this may muddle the narrative, it does speak to the passion of the author and his commitment to craft a history that compares with the poetry of his subject's psyche.

One character who stood out for me was Abigail Adams. I was already familiar of the role she played as her husband's political advisor and confidant, but it was refreshing to see her history incorporated next to the other prominent names. This puts her on equal ground with the geniuses who were present at the creation.

If you have a hunger to understand how the Founders viewed each other or if you seeking reassurance that volatile relationship dynamics are timeless, then look no further than this wonderful study.

I've heard a lot of good things about this book, but the author is already (by page 6) getting on my bad side. In the preface he states that "no republican government prior to the American Revolution... had ever survived for long, and none had ever been tried over a landmass as large as the 13 Colonies (There was one exception... the short-lived Roman Republic of Cicero)..." What about Venice? Even after over 200 years, the US is not even close to equaling the longevity of the Serene Republic, which in its heyday controlled a sizable chunk of the Mediterranean extending from Italy to the Bosphorus. And "short-lived Roman Repulic of Cicero?" If he means the total length of the Roman Republic, over 400 years isn't exactly short-lived. If he means the specific period of Rome when Cicero was alive, he's chosing a strange period to focus on; by that time the Republic was already a broken machine and certainly not an ideal republican form of govrnment. Sheesh! Hopefully, Ellis will stick with his area of expertise and avoid (inaccurate) sweeping generalizations like the above.

OK, well after his purple prose settled down a bit, he did give a good workmanlike analysis of the Burr-Hamilton duel. We'll see how this book goes now that he's more on specifics.

Having finished this book, I can't give it better than a 2 (or maybe a charitable 2.5) stars. His history seems OK, but his prose is a little overly wordy while at the same time the content seems a bit dumbed down, as if he's writing for someone with little knowledge of early American history (which, I suppose, he was). "Ooo... lookie, the founding fathers were real people with real faults and dirty politics. Pretty shocking, huh?" Also, he pretty obviously doesn't much like Thomas Jefferson, so he seemed rather biased.

Listen, I gave this book as much of a chance as I could. Having been utterly confused by his verbosity and extreme obfuscations through his sesquipedalian prose, I finally had to give up two chapters from the end. And if that last sentence grates on you, do not read this book. Ellis, poor guy, has spent so much time with his nose in his 18th century primary sources that writing like our forefathers comes easily to him. Unfortunately, modern Americans (even well-educated modern Americans that attended Jefferson's alma mater) will have a devil of a time winkling out the meaning of these long sentences full of switchbacks and fifty-cent words. Had this not been assigned for this month's non-fiction book club at the library, I doubt I would have made it even this far. It's a shame; even Ellis's introduction makes the book sound quite fascinating. Unfortunately his prose ruined it for me.

I found this book uneven. The first chapter, and several others, I enjoyed very much and felt it gave me great insight into the personalities and events of the American Revolution and the time afterwards when the survival of our country was not assured. But there were other chapters that I found fair too long and therefore boring and hard to get through.
I did like the perspective of the book, that is, the structure the author used to talk about these times and these people. Instead of trying to use the chapters to broadly discuss each person in turn, or to cover the chronology of these times, instead each chapter takes one specific incident to circle, in ever broadening strokes, the times, circumstances and personalities involved.
I did learn many small details of this time that I had not known before. And I think if anyone is a real fan of this time, i.e. the American Revolution and our early history, that person will greatly enjoy this book. After all, it did win a Pulitzer Prize.

It's crazy to think that I could rate this book so highly (4 1/2 stars) but take so dang long to finish it. It took me over a year to read it. Some books are like that for me. I just can't read them very fast. This book was rich in insights into our history that I found truly fascinating.

An outstanding recap of the most well-known "band of brothers" in US history, I found this book about Hamilton, Burr, Washington, Adams, Jefferson with allusions to Madison and John Quincy Adams quite illuminating and so much better than any history I had in school. There was a lot that was news to me and a lot that I was already familiar with, but I was especially interested in the slavery question which continued to come up in 1776 and after. Evidently when the Constitution was drafted, there was an unwritten agreement between the North and South that the slavery question would not be raised by the government for twenty years or it would negate the agreement of the South to be part of the Union. Everything was behind closed doors and kept secret from the public, so it was inevitable that the issue should arise well before 1808. There were tons of facts such as these in the book. I was interested that the author admits that Burr was a well-known womanizer but says nothing about Hamilton being one, except for a later reference to his affair with a married woman. He does, however, show that Hamilton's plans for the New Army were to put himself at the head of a military dictatorship, something that was hinted at in the book on John Adams that I had read some years ago but could not get corroboration for elsewhere until now. So I cannot find it in me to be sorry that Burr killed him in a duel and took him out of the equation. I am not yet convinced that Burr intended to hit him, however. Pistols were very unreliable in those days. Wonderful book and I'm so glad a friend gave it to me.