Book Review Founding Brothers

With all the conflicts and heated discussions, daily news broadcasts and newspaper articles about Trump, his cabinet and the possible constitutional concerns, here is a book to consider reading as it takes you back to the roots of America and the people that helped to form a nation.

The Pulitzer Prize winning author, Joseph J. Ellis in his book titled, Founding Brothers (The Revolutionary Generation) offers a diverse, well written and stimulating account of the lives of those great individuals that were among the founders of the American Republic.

George Washington, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are all intertwined as they are a part of perhaps America’s greatest decade, the 1790s. Key events, historic moments that helped to shape a nation are revealed and analyzed. The characters and personalities of these men play a crucial role in the evolution of a nation. It is a must read among many others that help to clearly establish the building of a country destined to shape the structures that would shape world history.

Joyce Appleby of the Washington Post Book World says:

“A distinguished biographer of both Jefferson and Adams, Ellis has here abandoned the single painting for the group portrait, posing his patriots adroitly as he trains his practiced eye on a few telling moments in their political careers. In lesser hands the fractious disputes and hysterical rhetoric of these contentious nation-builders might come across as hyperbolic pettiness. Ellis knows better, and he unpacks the real issues for his readers, revealing the driving assumptions and riveting fears that animated Americans’ first encounter with the organized ideologies and interests we call parties.”

Jay Winik of The Wall Street Journal says:

“Where (Ellis) most excels is in his enthusiasm as a historian. It is infectious. Like an energetic tour guide or a dedicated detective, he clearly loves the task of seeking out the facts and bringing an illuminating story alive. He gives us (the Revolutionary generation) affectionately but unsentimentally, unvarnished but thoughtfully, from our modern vantage point but, equally important, from theirs as well.”