Founding Brothers
“No event in American history which was so improbable at the time has seemed so inevitable in retrospect as the American Revolution.” This is the starting point of Joseph Ellis’ book Founding Brothers – The Revolutionary Generation. Over the next few hundred pages Ellis takes us on a journey observing the intertwined lives of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin.
Through six moments in history, we follow these founders into a secret dinner that determined our nation’s capital, a deadly duel, a leader’s unprecedented farewell address, a petition that would’ve ended slavery nearly a century earlier, an unlikely political collaboration, and an odd friendship that gave us the most important correspondence of American statesmen.
Founding Brothers offers a unique perspective on the formation of our nation, focusing on the private lives that would form the public legacies. Ellis believes that ultimately what formed and endured as the American republic was shaped less by documents and laws, but by the interaction, character and values of these men.
