Analysis Of Founding Brothers By Joseph J. Ellis

The founding fathers, or as the book calls them the founding brothers, are an assorted group of men from wildly different backgrounds. In political terms, they were divided. Yet, they came to together to help shape this country into the place it is today. Now on their journey towards the making of this country they did encounter some trouble. They encountered heated debates among themselves though for getting through these debates they show just why they deserve to be called, founding brothers.

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis is an episodic recount of six pivotal moments in post-revolutionary America’s history. The book follows Abigail Adams, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington through these events. The author seeks to show not only the outcomes that occurred in them, but to give in detail deeper thought about the thinking and actions that lead to those outcomes.

In the book Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, the author relates the stories of six crucial historic events that manage to capture the flavor and fervor of the revolutionary generation and its great leaders. While each chapter or story can be read separately and completely understood, they do relate to a broader common theme. One of Ellis' main purposes in writing the book was to illustrate the early stages and tribulations of the American government and its system through his use of well blended stories. The idea that a republican government of this nature was completely unprecedented is emphasized through out the book. Ellis discusses the unique problems that the revolutionary generation experienced as a result of governing under the

The Quartet by Joseph Ellis was a novel to provide detail of the years following the American Revolution, and how the Quartet of George Washington, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton each provided a quality in guiding America toward the right direction. Ellis creates a theme almost as if the reader is on a tour guide, because he explains the perspective on how America was being created between the “Second Revolution” of the years 1783-1789. But, the main goal Ellis wanted to make clear was this time period was the process of how America became a Nation. After finishing the book, Ellis was effective in making the case that the Quartet of Washington, Jay, Hamilton, Madison, as well as other major influences, greatly affected the “transition from confederation to nation.” Each Quartet presented a value in help transitioning America into a Nation, and Ellis provides excellent examples to solidify that claim.

Joseph J. Ellis, the author of “The Founding Brothers,” identifies and give a better vision of what is happening in the American Revolution. Ellis states, “On the inevitability side, it is true there was voices back then urging prospective patriots to regard American Independence as an early manifest destiny” (3). The book introduces the revolutionaries: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. Ellis focuses on the characteristics, actions, events, and the ideologies differences that affect the American Revolution.

Levin paints a picture of the founding fathers not as antiquated caricatures as they are presented in children’s cartoons, but of well-educated, historically minded, philosophical men who thoughtfully pieced together a government so as to safe guard it from the ‘soft tyranny’ we see rampant in today’s current governmental system.

During the times after the creation the United States Constitution the Founding Fathers, or Founding Brothers as this book calls them, explored many different challenges. “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” talks about this challenges and events in different sections that focus on seven historical figures at the time: George Washington, John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and Adam Burr. Joseph J. Ellis talked about six events, in six chapters, from the time in American history that shaped the ideas that created the United States government that is known today. The chapters are called as followed The Duel, The Dinner, The Silence, The Farewell, The Collaborators, and The Friendship. After a brief introductory chapter called The Generation , in which the reader is introduced to the setting and characters, the story begins.

The Founding Brothers tells the tales of the ordinary lives and challenges that the founders or framers of the United States faced. One of the challenges was the common goal to ensure that the nation that the forefathers helped build would stand the test of time. The author, Joseph Ellis, wants the reader to understand better that the founders were more than just men, that were all white and male. Instead, the founders were men that knew the problems that the country was facing after its gaining independence from the British in the American Revolutionary War. They all fought each other tooth and nail over things that they felt were essential for this new republic to survive. Nevertheless, they all met each other to form political compromises that would aid in building the strength and future position of the new republic. These compromises would help settle many disputes that threatened to divide the new nation in half. Even though, they dealt with issues -like slavery, they understood that the entire world was watching and waiting to see what would become of this new government system that.

Ellis, Joseph J. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Print.

In Founding Brothers, the three most important chapters that impact America today were The Duel, The Silence, and The Farewell and the least important was The Friendship. The book is about our seven founding brothers and about different events that happened to them in post revolutionary America. It is a nonfiction book that was written to show what they experienced and how they interacted with others.

Whose side would you have been on in the 1790s, Thomas Jefferson’s or Alexander Hamilton’s? Both of these men served under George Washington in the first presidential cabinet, yet they had very different views of what government should be (Davis 86). My objective in this research essay is to inform the reader of why there was so much controversy between these two founding fathers, and to determine which side had the better views for our newly forming country.

Chapter one of the Founding Brothers commences during the time after the American Revolution, when the unfledged nation was still in its infancy. This is the only chapter that is out of chronological order. A duel, often coded as an interview, was an outlawed event between gentlemen that used one-on-one combat to settle disputes and protect honor. That being said, Colonel Aaron Burr challenged General Alexander Hamilton to a duel that consequently resulted in the death of his opponent. Ellis addresses that the reason that Burr initiated the duel is because “ Hamilton had been libeling him through their crisscrossing careers in public life”(para. 30) and furthermore, that Hamilton couldn’t back out because if he did his reputation would be tainted.

Joseph J.Ellis provides an insight of how a nation emerged, with a group of memorable individuals that founded the American Republic. Founding Brothers deals with confrontations and crucial issues that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and George Washington encountered during an undefined decade where a fragile nation was being formed. With its main and secondary theme that focuses on the struggles the leaders of the Revolutionary Generation dealt with for the success of a Union, Founding Brothers is a marvelous book for historical readers that want an understanding of the political chaos of the early republic.

1 Joseph J. Ellis, “The Duel,” in Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, (New York, NY: