Saralee Says
If you are, like me, a lover of history and enjoy reading about intrigue, wheeling and dealing, compromise and a fight to the death, then you will love Founding Brothers - The Revolutionary Generation (Vintage). The author, Joseph Ellis, is a controversial history teacher at Mount Holyoke. He is also the author of Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams and of American Sphinx, a biography of Thomas Jefferson and winner of the 1997 National Book Award for nonfiction.
Founding Brothers, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize, is about the 1790s, years that were critical in the founding of the United States. The book describes the most powerful people of that time and how they interacted with each other to share ideas, compromise, disagree bitterly and at times kill each other.
Who are the founding brothers? George Washington, John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. As a feminist, I was so pleased that Abigail Adams is listed as a "founding brother." After you read this book you may think, as I do, that Abigail Adams was the most powerful first lady in American history, more powerful than even Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton.
Ellis describes actions of the 1790s and narrates how each of the founding brothers reacted to them. These events included the Hamilton and Burr duel, Hamilton's financial plan, the location of Washington, D.C., as our nation's capital because of a secret dinner, the correspondence between Adams and Jefferson, Washington's farewell address, and the compromise about slavery. Each one of the founding brothers reacted to these important chapters in American history. Some acted in a courageous manner; some did not.
What about the compromise regarding slavery? I was surprised to learn that the leaders in Virginia were not all pro-slavery and that some agreed with John and Abigail that slavery was an abomination. However, they all came together and agreed that slavery would be legal until 1810. What do you think of this compromise? If the slaves had been freed in the beginning, how would our history be different?
Do you think there are any leaders today that have the same kind of courage? My nomination for today's founding brother is Sen. John McCain for taking the lead on campaign finance reform - what is yours?
Larry's Language
The theme of Founding Brothers - The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis is about character and personal relationships during the founding of our nation. The signers of the Declaration of Independence probably believed that they were signing their death warrant in defiance of their king and England. That kind of outlook can forge lasting bonds between people who endure great hardship and risk to everything they hold precious.
Professor Ellis highlights his character insights by focusing on just a few events in the first decade-and-a-half of our nation: the Alexander Hamilton vs. Aaron Burr duel, which resulted in Hamilton's death; the political backroom deals that named the non-existent city of Washington, D.C., as our nation's capital; the true foreign policy meaning of George Washington's farewell address; and the long-term good and bad relationship between two of our great presidents - Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
While we tend to view these historical persons as important and powerful people who founded our nation, they viewed themselves quite differently. They were a "band of brothers" who conspired to overthrow the government, succeeded beyond their greatest imagination, and then had to deal with the all of the problems of creating and guiding a new society. In doing so their personal allegiance and the political alliances formed, shifted, fell apart, and came together depending on the issue and the personalities.
This brief history raises intriguing questions for a book club discussion. Do people or issues shape the course of history? If Burr had not killed Hamilton, would either or both of them have become one of our early presidents? If Abigail Adams had not intervened, would ex-presidents Adams and Jefferson ever have resumed their personal friendship and the correspondence that is so important to historians today? Is Tom Brokaw correct in labeling the World War II folks as the "greatest generation"?
Ellis ably exposes many of the faults of these founding brothers, ranging from petty jealousies to their moral failures on slavery and the slave trade. In writing the Constitution, they agreed to protect the slave trade for at least two decades. Ben Franklin at least had the courage to sign the first abolition petition presented to Congress in 1790, which is when we held our first national and open debate about slavery.
Those founding brothers eventually compromised again by not banning the slave trade and in return adopting New England's position for an expansive reading of the power of the federal government to regulate interstate commerce. One hundred seventy four years later when Congress adopted the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the legal basis for that modern law would be the expanded scope of the Interstate Commerce clause.
Join us for our next book club discussion, which will feature Lost Light by Michael Connelly.
