Founding_Brothers,_By_Joseph_J._Ellis_Book_Review

Founding Brothers, By Joseph J. Ellis Book Review 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 political, founders, together, provide, one, jefferson, because, union, two, states, revolution, madison, ellis, adams, themes, slavery, republic, over, hamilton, government, founding, each, compromise, collective, brothers, american, agreed, able, very, unique, taken, stories, run, revolutionary, resulted, plan