Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129320 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Guardian, 2 March 2002
this short, engrossing, brilliantly coloured account. . . a work of deep scholarship successfully masquerading as popular history.

Independent,13 February 2002
This is a fine piece of historical analysis that can be read for pleasure - and how rare that is.

The Times, 13 February 2002
Ellis has a penetrating mind and a light pen.

Customer Reviews

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 approach. Ellis decided to take a look at six different issues and events of the first decades of the United States. He did meticulous research on each of the issues and connected them to the larger context of American history, but the focus of each chapter was narrow enough so that we won't get lost in trying to figure out where everything fits in. Ellis attempts to take the myths and legends away from these early leaders and put them into a human context and a historical context. He succeeds at this. One thing to note, however, Ellis has a very academic style to his writing. While someone like David McCullough (also a Pulitzer Prize winner) weaves a story that flows and is fairly easy to read and move through, Ellis's academic prose makes for slower reading for comprehension.

The first chapter deals with the Hamilton-Burr duel. All I knew about this was from the "Got Milk" commercial several years ago. Ellis details the known facts about what happened and does some detective work to put together as best as possible what truly happened. This was a very interesting chapter to start the book with and set the stage for how Ellis would construct his chapters. He takes conflicting accounts (in this case, from the supporters of Burr and Hamilton) and weaves them together taking all the evidence in account and tries to make the story fit.

Other chapters deal with The Friendship of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, George Washington's Farewell Address, the rumor of a dinner which settled where the new Capitol would located, the Silence on the issue of slavery, and the collaborations of the Founders. This is a very interesting period in American History, and a vitally important one.

I learned quite a bit about different parts of early American history and this book will serve as a jumping off point to get into other historical works so that I'll have a more expanded background for some of the subjects that will surely come up.

-Joe Sherry

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 political rivals in our newborn Republic. Ellis is a terrific writer. History comes alive in this stirring narrative...the action starts in the opening pages with the most famous duel in American history and ends in the final chapter with a glowing review of the fued/friendship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington are examined in great detail by Ellis. Adams "enlightened diplomacy" negotiated a critical peace treaty with France. Burr is an opportunist and manipulator who was never forgiven for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Franklin, (who is not given the same attention as others) is a scientific genius who uses the press to attack political enemies, particularly those who were advocates of slavery.

Hamilton restored public credit but also nurtured power for the commercial elite at the expense of the large landowners. Jefferson is the brilliant author of the Declaration of Independance. Madison's nickname in Congress is "Big Knive" for his ability to cut up opposition to legislation he sponsors. And Washington is the "American Untouchable," a great horseman and pragmatic military man who is clearly not as well read as other leaders of his generation but becomes by far the greatest legend among the people. The combined talents of the founding fathers provided the intellectual energy that allowed our nation to survive.

Ellis is a talented writer, impressive researcher and a towering patriot. Highly recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Snapshots of a New Republic
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.