...In the beginning of the book called Founding Brothers, the author, Joseph J. Ellis, tells his purpose to research how the relationships of the main people in the Revolutionary generation changed the development of American history. The author asks the reader to see the stories from both foresight and hindsight, implying that the stories should be understood both in terms of how they occurred, and in terms of what was later revealed over the years. He has chosen to focus the structure of the book around the important members of the Revolutionary generation, including Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and Hamilton. The founding fathers realized that the new nation had great potential. George Washington was a great example because he thought the expansion into the West would help a civilized future. On page 7, George...
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...In the novel,”Founding Brothers” author Joseph Ellis illustrates the Revolutionary era by providing insights of the Founding Fathers. Ellis also distinguishes the behind scenes look during the revolutionary period as he comes across the explanation of how America successfully achieved their independence from Great Britain, declaration of Independence, and established the United States Constitution. Ellis takes the reader back into American history to view how these founding fathers (Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison) contributed to the American Revolution.Alexander Hamilton “was [the] secretary of treasury”(48). He was described as an ambitious man, he had developed a financial plan to pay off the state debts. Part of his plan was to collaborate a National Bank. He wanted Congress to charter this bank that would provide stability to America's economy by establishing loans to merchants, handling government funds, and issuing...
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...After the American Revolution, what is called the spirit of ‘76 held together the men who later wrote the Constitution and shaped the basis for the United States government. Going into the War and then coming out, the Founding Fathers were more united than ever. However, the seven had a relationship more comparable to brothers, and, like any siblings, they did not always get along. When written, the main idea of Founding Brothers had a strong purpose and a specific audience to reach, but, despite having its flaws, this book is, and will remain, a current topic for a wider audience. Joseph Ellis began his historical education by pursuing his Bachelors from the College of William & Mary, and then going on to get his Masters and Doctorate at Yale University. He first taught at a military academy at West Point, but he currently teaches at Mount Holyoke College. Having a wife and three sons, he now contributes to many national publications on a regular basis, including, but not limited to: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. As an American historian, Ellis has received nationwide appraisal; in fact, he won the Pulitzer Prize for...
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...Preface: The Generation In the preface, Joseph Ellis takes his time in explaining the importance of the American Revolution. He starts off by stating that during the 1780’s everyone thought that it was only natural that America verge away from British rule. They all figured that it would be a gradual change; not a full blown revolution. Throughout the chapter, Ellis puts great emphasis on the many things that could have gone wrong during the revolution. He points all these negative events and set backs that he felt could easily have brought the developing America down to show just how great of an accomplishment the revolution was. The Founding Fathers were not completely oblivious to the severity of breaking away from Great Britain. Tom Pain states that, “it is only common sense that an island can not rule a continent (pg.3).” Many assumed that it was only natural that the thirteen colonies govern themselves. They figured that it would be a peaceful break such as the gaining of independence for Ghana or Canada. It was not until later on that the colonies realized that Britain would not easily hand over the land. What I find interesting is that only the Founding Fathers seemed to realize the great events taking place during their time. John Adams even instructed his wife to file and keep all of his records. It is as if he knew that hundreds of years from then, we the future Americans would look back at his notes and recognize his greatness. This makes me wonder why they...
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...The Founding Brothers tells the tales of the ordinary lives and challenges that the Founders or Framers faced. One of them was to ensure that the nation that they helped build would stand for the test of time. However, the author, Joseph Ellis, tries to give the reader a better understanding of the founders, that they are more than just men. They are more than white people that believed in white superiority. Instead, they are men that understood the problems that the country was facing after independence from the United Kingdom by a war. They fought each other tooth and nail over things that they believed needed to be done for the country or else this new republic will fall, like the Roman Republic. Nevertheless, they met each other to form political compromises that would build the strength and position of the new republic. Theses Compromises help settle many disputes that had threated to divide the new nation in half. Even though, it deals with issues that at the time should not be spoken, like slavery. They understood that the world was watching them and was waiting for what...
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...Kelsey Wible Mr. Stoner APUSH August 19 2014 Founding Brothers "Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis is a non-fiction book that analyzes several important events in America among the nation's founding fathers, that take place after the Revolutionary War. The author goes into detail chronologically describing how these events shaped the history of the United States. Joseph Ellis is an American historian and professor. He specializes in American history, and more specifically the founding fathers of America. Ellis has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He has written several biographies about the founders of America, including Adams, Jefferson and Washington. His book about Jefferson titled, "American Sphinx: The...
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...Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis focuses on the conflicting interpretations of the American Revolution in the eyes of our Founding Fathers. Ellis scrutinizes how relationships between Founding Fathers were changed by the unsettled time period. He splits the book into seven sections in which each part uses perception and foresight to understand them. He introduces our forefathers as men who have the best in mind for our country. Ellis begins revealing the story one of the most famous duels in American history. The duel between Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr, vice president of Thomas Jefferson, began on July 11th, 1804. Hamilton distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War by becoming the Senior Officer...
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...Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation was written by Joseph J. Ellis and published by Vintage Books in February 2002. According to josephellishistorian.com and mtholyoke.edu, Joseph J. Ellis is a very accomplished historian, author, and professor, currently teaching in the Leadership Studies Program at Williams College. He studied at Yale University (Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A.) and College of William and Mary (B.A.). Specializing in the history of the American Revolution, Presidents and the roots of American foreign policy. His works include American Sphinx, His Excellency: George Washington and Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence. As well as essays and book reviews that appear in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Founding Brothers is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that discusses the prominent men in the political atmosphere of America after the Constitutional Convention and the issues that they faced. The book starts off with the infamous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804. The outcome of this duel is that Burr shoots Hamilton and...
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...Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. by Joseph J. Ellis. In Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis, the “Brothers” in the titles are Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Although there are controversies about Joseph Ellis leaving out the “sister” that also has an important role in the revolutionary, Abigail Adams. Reading this book, I learned a lot about America’s founding fathers of whom I never knew about. Such as the politicals learnings and how our nation ran. The book itself is sectioned off like episodes of a T.V show: a duel between Hamilton and Burr; a dinner consisting of Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison that...
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...Assignment, I read the novel Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by author Joseph J. Ellis. Ellis is a leading historian who was educated at the College of William and Mary and at Yale University and who has taught at Williams College, the University of Massachusetts, Mount Holyoke College, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. II. Summary of the Main Ideas Although Ellis expresses many significant points, it is clear that, above all else, Ellis believes the framing of our government was made possible because of the distinctive personalities of the revolutionary generation and their varying viewpoints on the future of our...
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...Joseph J. Ellis, the author of the historical novel “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation”, is an American historian, novelist, and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Ellis was born on July 18, 1943 in Washington, D.C. and is still alive today, living with his wife in Amherst, Massachusetts and is the father of three adult sons. As for his career, he has had some impressive accomplishments in his lifetime and some not so pleasant scandals. Ellis earned his Bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in 1965. He went on to receive many higher educational degrees from the prestigious Yale University such as the following: a Master of Arts, a Master of Philosophy,...
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...In Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, Joseph J. Ellis, in depth, explains some of the defining challenges that the Founding Fathers faced after they began to build the new government of the United Sates after the Revolutionary War. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation is a work of historical non-fiction written in narrative form. Ellis chooses to write his narrative based on the most predominant figures of the time period, which he names “Founding Brothers,” a relative twist from the more commonly known “Founding Fathers. Ellis splits the book into seven sections, where he tries to focus on either an event or an issue that occurred during the Revolutionary Era of the United States. The target of Ellis’s book is to...
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...In the book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Government written by Joseph J. Ellis; Ellis talks about the time after the war and the people who were the most responsible for holding the United States together after the fact. Those people include Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.The book is split up into six different parts where each Founder has a part and story while within these parts you can see the change of foundations of the Government overtime Chapter one, “The Duel”, focuses on the death of hamilton with Aaron Burr. The duel was is an example of how important it is to have commitment. According to Ellis, both of them were very smart and successful men who had connections...
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...Founding Brothers Through a sequence of six important events in United States history, the author goes into depth on the challenges faced by our Founding Fathers as they created the new government of the United States after the Revolutionary War. He focuses his writings around the most important members of the Revolutionary era, the Founding Fathers. They are: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Aaron Burr, John Adams, and Abigail Adams. Ellis’s quest is to examine each one’s personality to discover the historical truth. This book is divided into six sections and an additional preface, each of which focuses on an event or issue during the Revolutionary Era, which occurred from 1764 to 1789. Ellis attempts to examine the time from both foresight and hindsight. He attempts to impart the improved perspective afforded by centuries of hindsight. His goal is to rediscover our Founding Fathers, and the length to which they formed or were formed by the rough period in which they lived and acquired their historical reputations....
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...Brothers to each other and Fathers to the nation, James Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison led the United States to independence over a series of revolutionary events. Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers successfully brings to life the issues and personalities of this period in time and is able to characterize these figures beyond their distinguished names, but as characters in a dramatic and remarkable history. Ellis succinctly analyzes six major events in the late 18th century: the Burr-Hamilton duel, the Compromise of 1790, the issue of slavery, Washington’s Farewell Address, the Adams Administration, and the friendship between Adams and Madison. He is able to vividly...
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