Founding Brothers, By Joseph J. Ellis Book Review

5 Pages 1353 Words

The opposing ideologies during the post-revolutionary era of individual liberty (the Jeffersonian outlook) versus collective nationalism (the Hamiltonian outlook) had the potential to swallow the infant American union into an abyss of anarchy. As Ellis puts it, “The politics of the 1790s was a truly cacophonous affair.” (page 16). Similar revolutions in Europe had resulted in postbellum nightmares, where differing parties and ideologies had fought to the death over power. But the American Revolution was a colonial revolution very different than others in that its founders’ acumen allowed them to safely place their opposing ideologies in a governmental structure containing political parties, and thus form a basis of government on healthy debate as opposed to antagonism. Through six stories and themes on specific events in the lives of Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison, “Founding Brothers” masterfully explains how the founders were able to “contain the explosive energies of the debate” (15), and thereby successfully create what is now the longest and most enduring republic of all time, the United States.

Professor Ellis employs a stylistically unique way of presenting and detailing this overwhelmingly massive and often daunting subject of history. He uses stories as his format to capture the personalities, temperaments and dynamic interactions of the leading figures, and he presents them as real people we can relate to, with shortcomings and other imperfections. His purpose is to reveal the unique origin and character of the American Revolution as a colonial revolution very different from others in history and to reveal the origin of how the major ideas and institutions of the United States were decided. The thrust and primary thesis, however, are to show how these political leaders functioned as a collective unit in which each leader contributed a specific strength. This collective balan...