Founding Generations: Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

Improved Essays
“All the vanguard members of the revolutionary generation developed a keen sense of their historical significance while they were still making history on which their reputations would rest” (Ellis 18). Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation is a historical non-fiction novel written by the accredited historian Joseph J. Ellis. Founding Brothers is about the founding fathers of the United States (Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Washington, and Adams) and how they formed the new nation. Together, the seven men went through many trials and periods of triumphs as they struggled to create a foundation for the new nation. Founding Brothers focuses on our founding fathers and how their relationships with one another affected the shaping of the young United States. …show more content…
Ellis was born on July 18th, 1943 in Washington, D.C. From an early age, he was influenced by the political history that surrounded him in the nation’s capital. Ellis’ upbringing in such a historical city drove him to attend the College of William and Mary, the second oldest college in the nation. Ellis received his B.A. from the College of William and Mary and then continued his education at Yale University. Ellis earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale and went on to become a professor of history at prestigious universities such as the Honors College at the University of Massachusetts, Mount Holyoke College, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. His strong background and clear love for history led him to become one of the most prominent scholars of American history. Ellis wrote Founding Brothers after completing biographies on several dominant figures in early American history, including John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. In Founding Brothers, Ellis strives to analyze both the brilliance and the flaws of the founding fathers, and how their interactions with each other influenced the unstable time period after the Revolutionary

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Rex Brothers in the Revolutionary War. Wilhelm Rex was our families direct link to the third generation in America. The family detested war but reluctantly joined the cause once the British Armies invaded Pennsylvania and headed for the Rex families farms. Wilhelm and his brothers Daniel and Peter took their oath of allegiances to the American cause in 1777, just before the battle of German town.…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He starts his book with Jefferson and Adams story about two parties such as the Republicans and the Federalists. They are big differences about how to govern the United States. Jefferson, who is representative of Republicans, supports freedom of each state and the government should be populist government that trusted popular rule with his running mate New York’s Aaron Burr. However, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, who they are representative of Federalists, support a strong army and navy, and insist that strong central government that all authority concentrated in the president. The differences dividing Adams and Jefferson reflected two parties have different ideologies.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Duel (The Parallel lives of Alexander Hamilton & Aaron Burr) MaKayley Smallwood. Publisher: Judith St. George. # of pages: 86 (not including the Epilogue) Early on the morning of July 11,1804, two men met on the dueling grounds of Weehawken ,New Jersey.…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    From the time of the American Revolution, these characters contributed knowledge and leadership that fueled the creation of a growing country. What we neglect to understand in modern day history is how important their character, described as a self-conscious, self-made man, was to the decisions they used to govern and create. Gordon S. Wood accurately defines and analyzes these eight different founding fathers by focusing directly on their character and how it influenced the decisions and progressions made during the…

    • 1345 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Revolutionary Characters Dr. Woods in his book on revolutionary characters explains some of the personal characters of the founding fathers of this great nation. He gives a form of a profile on their life, their contributions among other pieces of information on various great men in history. In as much as I agree with his ranking, I tend to disagree with some. Woods (2006) has focused more on their perfect nature when it comes to the contribution to history of the nation. There is less of their character flaws or even explain the reason for some of the flaws where some are provided.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John P. Roche gives his case that proposes that the form of the Constitution was simply a representative development involving a compromise of the interests of the state, economy, and governmental concentrations. In John P. Roche’s argument he states that the government was as democratic as possible: “My concern is with the further position that not only were they revolutionaries, but also they were democrats. Indeed, in my view, there is one fundamental truth about the Founding Fathers…: They were first and foremost superb democratic politicians…”[1]. He continues by stating that what they did was create a practical compromise that would support both the national interest and be something that the people would agree with. They started with the Virginia plan that proposed a bicameral legislative branch.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Founding Brothers Summary

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The author of Founding Brothers, Joseph Ellis argues many points throughout the assigned reading. He argued that the new nation surviving its infancy stage was “bleak in the extreme. ”(Ellis, 8) The adolescent nation faced many challenges both home and abroad during the revolutionary generation as they attempted to fashion an independent viable republic such as the dinner which Thomas Jefferson held to decide the issues of the early nation’s deficit and the location of its new capitol, the long-standing silence over the slavery issue, the Farewell Address-centered in a single fact that Washington was leaving office, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson first contested presidential election of 1796. They took many steps to confront these challenges…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The foundation of this country was forged and built by men who believed in something better for themselves and their family. A few of these men were George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. These men were very influential during the Revolutionary Era in many ways. George Washington was born on February 22nd, 1732 in Virginia on his family’s plantation. He attended school but quit when he was 15 because his mother was too poor to keep paying for school.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Historical events are often the result of a variety of contributing factors.” In Founding Brothers, Author Joseph Ellis shows us that this truly was the case in early years of our Nation. Ellis uses his vast knowledge of the people and era to read between the lines of six famous historical events. The six chapters each relate an event that showed how fragile our fathers found the nation and how fervently they worked at keeping the union intact. He encourages us not to think back from the time where we stand, but where our founding fathers stood, taking in the various influences and forces that they faced when making their decisions.…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is often the case in revolutions that many partnerships who take a lead role in shaping a new society do not continue to work together after their goal is achieved, that is exactly what happened to James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, who had risen to prominent positions within the new nation of America as delegates for their respective state. Both would be each other 's support for fighting for a new and ratified U.S. constitution. Although their partnership falls apart, they are truly America’s most needed partnership. Madison and Hamilton together led the U.S. to create and ratify the U.S. Constitution, which gave people more rights, made everyone more equal, and set the path for a self-governing America. James Madison and Alexander…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, most Americans doubted America’s ability to defeat the British. Although the British held various strengths over the Patriots, America had several key advantages over the British. When the British arrived to fight, they underestimated the resilience, political and military leadership, and strategic capacity of the Patriots. Eventually America triumphed in the Revolutionary War, emerging successful against the daunting British regime. The Patriots secured an honorable victory in the American Revolution due to support from foreign allies, a strong ideological commitment, greater familiarity with the land, and strong political and military leadership.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The major problems that the founding brothers faced in the start up of America were resolved through Madison allowing for Hamilton’s assumption plan to pass and Madison in favor would get Hamilton’s help in the approval of the capital’s location at Potomac. The founding brothers also argued over the rightness of slavery. However, they were unable to solve anything either way due to the Constitution, which didn’t allow the brothers to do much. Despite all the early conflicts and problems that arose in the foundation of America, the country prevailed and became one of the most powerful countries in the world…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout this all-encompassing novel, Joseph J. Ellis is depicting what truly happened in prominent political events rather than the common ideas. He extensively goes into great depths rather than merely scraping the surface of these phenomenal affairs. Specifically, he elaborates on events such as the Duel between Hamilton and Burr, The Compromise of 1790, the plague of slavery, George Washington 's presidency, and the rocky friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It is more than apparent that Ellis wrote this novel to provide great insight as to what really occurred on some of the most monumental days of American History. On a July morning of 1804, renowned politicians Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton met near the modern-day…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Founding Fathers of America worked together in an effort to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These actions are what established America as a free country ruled as a democracy. All of the men who were involved in the founding of America are considered Founding Fathers, but there are a few that stand out a bit more than the others. John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington all influenced the future of America forever by being brave enough to express their political visions and to fight for the country’s freedom. John Adams influenced our country immensely, but is perhaps the least influential of the three founding fathers listed.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The text I found is short story titled “Timber!” written by Richard Brookhiser. The author, Richard Brookhiser, is an American historian, biographer, and journalist (Richard Brookhiser, 2016) . He is a senior editor at National Review. Also, he is mostly known for his literary contributions of series of biographies of America’s founders including Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and George Washington (Wikipedia, 2016) .…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays