Summary Of Joseph J. Ellis Founding Brothers

Founding Brothers is a historical non-fiction novel written by Joseph J. Ellis. It concentrates on important moments both in post-progressive America and on the lives of the Founding Fathers. Throughout this novel Ellis discovers that the relationships between the Founding Brothers, was a vital decision maker for America. Separated into seven sections, Ellis examines the Founding Fathers from both foresight and hindsight. The preface of this novel is called The Generation. The Generation examines how both Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson believe that as a new country we need to separate from England. Ellis states that “No event in American history which was so improbable at the time has seemed so inevitable in retrospect as the American Revolution”. This reminds the reader that modern Americans take their freedoms lightly which was not possible in the 1700s. Also in the Preface, Ellis hopes to recover the “sense of urgency” during the Revolutionary War. He repeats to the reader that the Founding Fathers did not believe that they would win the war. The first chapter of this novel examines The Duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Ellis adds this to discuss how the importance of a reputation can be a …show more content…
Ellis’ main focus is towards the people’s reaction of the American Revolution and how it affected their ideology. Ellis is more interested in the social history of America. Ellis concentrated on the social ideology by including quotes from Jefferson, Hamilton, etc. The quotations are so effective because they come directly from the American leaders themselves and are seamlessly blended with Ellis's additional commentary. Unfortunately, by choosing to focus on only a few events, Ellis's book fails in that it lacks somewhat of a scope. The book also focuses on some of the founding brothers in much greater detail than others. Personally, I learn more about Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton and not much about Aaron Burrs or Benjamin