Founding Brothers The Revolutionary Generation Summary
Founding Brothers the Revolutionary Generation
This book report is on the book, “Founding Brothers the Revolutionary Generation” written by Joseph J. Ellis. The book has 248 pages and was published in 2002. The book examines the political lives of some of the key players in the American Revolution, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Janes Madison, Thomas Jefferson, The Adam’s (John and Abigail) and George Washington. The author examines six events that took place in our history: The Duel, The Dinner, The Silence, The Farwell, The Collaborators and the Friendship. Ellis uses these events to form his thesis that the friendships, political alliances and rivalries helped shape the lives of our Founding Fathers and form the foundation of our new nation.
The Duel aka “The Interview”, Aaron Burr challenges Alexander Hamilton to a duel to defend his honor. The details and history surrounding the duel and the long standing political rivalry between Hamilton and Burr are fascinating. Participating in a duel was illegal in New York and gentleman participating in this activity and their accomplices had to be able to deny any actual knowledge of the event. The Duel was referred to as “The Interview” and adhered to …show more content…
“code duello” (p. 23) rules that outlined code of conduct and how the duel would proceed. Burr fatally wounds Hamilton during the duel and the ensuing investigation with conflicting testimonies creates further scandals and ultimately destroys Burr’s career. It is believed that Hamilton had made the decision to throw away his shot and participated in the duel to only save face. He was guilty of the charges Burr had levied against him and had throughout their careers thwarted Burr’s career ambitions and said defamatory things about his abilities and character.
The significance of this event is in how it outlines the historical, political development of the political system and the creation of adversarial parties and how deeply involved key players such as Hamilton, Burr, Adams and Jefferson were. Furthermore, how these men believed that, “Honor mattered because character mattered. And character mattered because the fate of the American experiment with republic government still required virtuous leader leaders to survive” (p. 47). Honor and code were governing principles that ruled over the lives of our founding fathers. Ellis states “One of the reasons the Burr-Hamilton duel became legendary is its cautionary role as the most memorable example of how not to do it” (p. 39). Moreover, “their fatal encounter represented a momentary breakdown in the dominant pattern of nonviolent conflict within the American revolutionary generation” (p. 39).
The Dinner, Thomas Jefferson host a dinner party with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, each prominent political leader in the ever growing patrician federal government. Jefferson hoped that the “intractable political obstacles might melt away under the more benign influences of wine and gentlemanly conversation” (p. 49). Madison was leading the debate in government on where the new federal government should be located. He wanted the capital to be located on the Potomac River. The opposing party wanted the capital to be more Northern. Hamilton was leading the debate over assumption of the state debts and fiscal reform. To simplify the events and meetings that will follow, during the dinner they came to terms, “Madison agreed to permit the core provision of Hamilton’s fiscal program to pass; and in return Hamilton agreed to use his influence to assure that the permanent residence of the nation’s capital would be on the Potomac River” (p. 49). The relevance of The Dinner is revealing personality characteristics of Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison all key players in the growing patrician political environment and the abilities they possessed to use diplomacy and relationships to broker deals and form alliances.
The Silence refers to the taboo topic of slavery. While many politicians, including Jefferson tried to pass legislation to deal with the issue, it was such an impassioned and difficult topic that slavery continued to be a subject pushed off to be dealt with by other generations. As our history will reveal leading to the Civil War and the final abolition of slavery in the nation.
The Farewell, George Washington makes the unprecedented decision to resign from office. In his farewell speech he stressed the need for national unity. Furthermore, Washington “denounced excessive partisanship, most especially when it took the form of political parties pursuing a vested ideological agenda or sectional interest groups oblivious to the advantages of cooperation” (p.) Moreover, he stressed the need for “strict American neutrality and diplomatic independence from the tangled affair of Europe” (p. 128).
The Collaborators examines the friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson which originates during the American Revolution. Adams and Jefferson work effectively together from collaborating on the Declaration of Independence to obtaining support for the revolution in France. During the post-revolutionary time period their friendship endures many test, but ultimately political rivalries and disagreements about how to best proceed on political matters drives them apart. Ellis again pointedly depicts how friendships and alliances betrayed lead to the severing of a much appreciated relationship between the Adam’s and Jefferson. Ellis points out how Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton are particularly skilled in using press and leveraging other people to spread rumors and disapproval of political decisions to help persuade the public and other political leaders leading them to their side. This type of political gamesmanship also leads to the rivalry and the duel between Hamilton and Burr.
The Friendship, Ellis goes into great detail about how the friendship between the Adam’s and Jefferson developed and how the events that lead to its dissolution were hard felt for Adams. Ellis depicts Jefferson as being more unaware of why the Adam’s would be upset about his role in criticizing Adam’s political leadership and decisions. He seems to deny any part that should cause offense. In the later part of their life they renewed their friendship both wanting to reach out not only as friends, but to start a discourse discussing the revolution and the new government. Both of them seemed to understand that they had created a lasting legacy and for posterity wanted to give an addition account of the events and hopes for the new nation.
The authors main thesis was that the friendships, political alliances and rivalries of our founding Fathers are what helped shape the lives of our Founding Fathers and formed the foundation of our new nation.
The author wrote the book from a more social point of view, focusing on the relationships between the founding fathers and how these relationships affected the forming of our nation. Ellis is sympathetic for how Burr and Adams are often victims of the political maneuvering and gamesmanship done by Hamilton and Jefferson. Ellis used letters from letters between Jefferson and Adams, historic books, letters between the founding fathers, newspaper articles, and historical documents to base his argument; his sources are not one sided and show multiple
perspectives.
In conclusion, the book is well organized in a style of giving the background to events, telling a story, and then analyzing the significance of the event. The book is written for a reader that is familiar with the history of the time period but also wants to learn more about the background events that shaped the history. The book is valuable for showing people a glimpse into the lives of the people that created our country and how events in their lives not only affected them but also shaped the nation. As stated in the introduction, “Ellis argues that the checks and balances that permitted the infant American republic to endure were not primarily legal, constitutional, or institutional, but intensely personal, rooted in the dynamic interaction of leaders with quite different visions and values”.
This book report is on the book, “Founding Brothers the Revolutionary Generation” written by Joseph J. Ellis. The book has 248 pages and was published in 2002. The book examines the political lives of some of the key players in the American Revolution, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Janes Madison, Thomas Jefferson, The Adam’s (John and Abigail) and George Washington. The author examines six events that took place in our history: The Duel, The Dinner, The Silence, The Farwell, The Collaborators and the Friendship. Ellis uses these events to form his thesis that the friendships, political alliances and rivalries helped shape the lives of our Founding Fathers and form the foundation of our new nation.
The Duel aka “The Interview”, Aaron Burr challenges Alexander Hamilton to a duel to defend his honor. The details and history surrounding the duel and the long standing political rivalry between Hamilton and Burr are fascinating. Participating in a duel was illegal in New York and gentleman participating in this activity and their accomplices had to be able to deny any actual knowledge of the event. The Duel was referred to as “The Interview” and adhered to …show more content…
“code duello” (p. 23) rules that outlined code of conduct and how the duel would proceed. Burr fatally wounds Hamilton during the duel and the ensuing investigation with conflicting testimonies creates further scandals and ultimately destroys Burr’s career. It is believed that Hamilton had made the decision to throw away his shot and participated in the duel to only save face. He was guilty of the charges Burr had levied against him and had throughout their careers thwarted Burr’s career ambitions and said defamatory things about his abilities and character.
The significance of this event is in how it outlines the historical, political development of the political system and the creation of adversarial parties and how deeply involved key players such as Hamilton, Burr, Adams and Jefferson were. Furthermore, how these men believed that, “Honor mattered because character mattered. And character mattered because the fate of the American experiment with republic government still required virtuous leader leaders to survive” (p. 47). Honor and code were governing principles that ruled over the lives of our founding fathers. Ellis states “One of the reasons the Burr-Hamilton duel became legendary is its cautionary role as the most memorable example of how not to do it” (p. 39). Moreover, “their fatal encounter represented a momentary breakdown in the dominant pattern of nonviolent conflict within the American revolutionary generation” (p. 39).
The Dinner, Thomas Jefferson host a dinner party with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, each prominent political leader in the ever growing patrician federal government. Jefferson hoped that the “intractable political obstacles might melt away under the more benign influences of wine and gentlemanly conversation” (p. 49). Madison was leading the debate in government on where the new federal government should be located. He wanted the capital to be located on the Potomac River. The opposing party wanted the capital to be more Northern. Hamilton was leading the debate over assumption of the state debts and fiscal reform. To simplify the events and meetings that will follow, during the dinner they came to terms, “Madison agreed to permit the core provision of Hamilton’s fiscal program to pass; and in return Hamilton agreed to use his influence to assure that the permanent residence of the nation’s capital would be on the Potomac River” (p. 49). The relevance of The Dinner is revealing personality characteristics of Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison all key players in the growing patrician political environment and the abilities they possessed to use diplomacy and relationships to broker deals and form alliances.
The Silence refers to the taboo topic of slavery. While many politicians, including Jefferson tried to pass legislation to deal with the issue, it was such an impassioned and difficult topic that slavery continued to be a subject pushed off to be dealt with by other generations. As our history will reveal leading to the Civil War and the final abolition of slavery in the nation.
The Farewell, George Washington makes the unprecedented decision to resign from office. In his farewell speech he stressed the need for national unity. Furthermore, Washington “denounced excessive partisanship, most especially when it took the form of political parties pursuing a vested ideological agenda or sectional interest groups oblivious to the advantages of cooperation” (p.) Moreover, he stressed the need for “strict American neutrality and diplomatic independence from the tangled affair of Europe” (p. 128).
The Collaborators examines the friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson which originates during the American Revolution. Adams and Jefferson work effectively together from collaborating on the Declaration of Independence to obtaining support for the revolution in France. During the post-revolutionary time period their friendship endures many test, but ultimately political rivalries and disagreements about how to best proceed on political matters drives them apart. Ellis again pointedly depicts how friendships and alliances betrayed lead to the severing of a much appreciated relationship between the Adam’s and Jefferson. Ellis points out how Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton are particularly skilled in using press and leveraging other people to spread rumors and disapproval of political decisions to help persuade the public and other political leaders leading them to their side. This type of political gamesmanship also leads to the rivalry and the duel between Hamilton and Burr.
The Friendship, Ellis goes into great detail about how the friendship between the Adam’s and Jefferson developed and how the events that lead to its dissolution were hard felt for Adams. Ellis depicts Jefferson as being more unaware of why the Adam’s would be upset about his role in criticizing Adam’s political leadership and decisions. He seems to deny any part that should cause offense. In the later part of their life they renewed their friendship both wanting to reach out not only as friends, but to start a discourse discussing the revolution and the new government. Both of them seemed to understand that they had created a lasting legacy and for posterity wanted to give an addition account of the events and hopes for the new nation.
The authors main thesis was that the friendships, political alliances and rivalries of our founding Fathers are what helped shape the lives of our Founding Fathers and formed the foundation of our new nation.
The author wrote the book from a more social point of view, focusing on the relationships between the founding fathers and how these relationships affected the forming of our nation. Ellis is sympathetic for how Burr and Adams are often victims of the political maneuvering and gamesmanship done by Hamilton and Jefferson. Ellis used letters from letters between Jefferson and Adams, historic books, letters between the founding fathers, newspaper articles, and historical documents to base his argument; his sources are not one sided and show multiple
perspectives.
In conclusion, the book is well organized in a style of giving the background to events, telling a story, and then analyzing the significance of the event. The book is written for a reader that is familiar with the history of the time period but also wants to learn more about the background events that shaped the history. The book is valuable for showing people a glimpse into the lives of the people that created our country and how events in their lives not only affected them but also shaped the nation. As stated in the introduction, “Ellis argues that the checks and balances that permitted the infant American republic to endure were not primarily legal, constitutional, or institutional, but intensely personal, rooted in the dynamic interaction of leaders with quite different visions and values”.