American Dialogue

July 15, 2018
An eminent historian sharply illuminates the "messy moment" of the nation's founding and its implications for contemporary America.Ellis (Emeritus, History/Mount Holyoke Coll.; The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789, 2015, etc.), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, offers a lucid and authoritative examination of America's tumultuous beginnings, when the Founding Fathers grappled with issues of race, income inequality, law, and foreign policy--all issues that still vex the nation. Believing that history is "an ongoing conversation between past and present," the author asks what Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and Adams can teach us today. "What did 'all men are created equal' mean then and now? Did the 'pursuit of happiness' imply the right to some semblance of economic equality? Does it now?" These and other salient questions inform Ellis' vivid depiction of the controversies swirling as the Constitution was drafted and ratified. The Founders were men of deep contradictions and evolving political views. As a young man, for example, Jefferson "insisted that the central principles of the American Revolution were inherently incompatible with slavery." The older Jefferson, who owned hundreds of slaves and fathered many children with his slave Sally Hemings, fervently believed that races should not mix. Slaves should be freed, he conceded, and then sent to the unpopulated West, Santo Domingo, or Liberia. As to equality, the Founders "were a self-conscious elite" who did not value "the innate wisdom of the common man." John Adams' "prognosis for the American future was a plutocratic aristocracy." Freedom to pursue wealth, he asserted, "essentially ensured the triumph of inequality." Ellis places Washington's famous warning against foreign entanglements in the context of westward expansion, Native American removal, and postwar negotiations. Most fascinating is the author's cogent critique of constitutional originalists, intent on recovering "the mentality and language of the framers on their own terms in their own time."A discerning, richly detailed inquiry into America's complex political and philosophical legacy.

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Starred review from August 20, 2018
The founders have much to tell us about current problems, none of it simple, according to this incisive study of American political creeds. Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Ellis (American Sphinx) probes the writings of four Revolutionary War leaders on issues of ideology and governance that still roil America. Thomas Jefferson’s hypocritical racial attitudes—he both deplored slavery (while owning dozens of slaves, some of them his own children) and believed that blacks could not live with whites as equals—frame Ellis’s discussion of the menace of modern racism; John Adams’s doubts about the feasibility of achieving true social equality underpin a look at rising economic inequality since the Reagan administration; James Madison’s attempts to convert the early U.S. from a federation to a nation-state spark a critique of Supreme Court conservatives’ originalist philosophy of jurisprudence; and George Washington’s weary realism about popular passions, human fallibility, and the difficulty of spreading republican values to foreign lands prompts a dissection of the failures of recent American military adventures. Ellis’s passions sometimes show, as in his criticism of Justice Antonin Scalia’s writings on the Second Amendment. Still, his colorful, nuanced portraits of these outsized but very human personalities and shrewd analyses of their philosophies make for a compelling case for the troubled but vital legacy of the founding generation.

September 1, 2018
Eliis (Revolutionary Summer, 2013), a Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling historian, is aware of the difficulties and dangers implicit in seeking answers to our current debates and dilemmas in the archives of the Founding Fathers, yet he attempts to do so here, and his effort to apply the views of four historical icons to current political conflicts is interesting and useful. On the topic of racial relations, Ellis refers to Thomas Jefferson and seems to delight in pointing out Jefferson's inconsistencies and contradictions on the topic. Considering political equality, Ellis turns to John Adams, who didn't view equality as the natural political order and didn't share Jefferson's faith in the wisdom of the people; in fact, he viewed a very powerful executive as necessary to protect the public from both an emerging elite and themselves. On foreign policy, Ellis turns to Washington, who strove to manage foreign relations with Native nations and maintain American neutrality between France and Britain. Ellis is provocative and interesting and reminds us that our present controversies are not unique or new. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Ellis joins other best-selling historians currently seeking perspective, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, with a sure-to-be roundly publicized examination of American conundrums.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 1, 2018

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ellis (Founding Brothers) connects readers with history to enable them to formulate salient questions for the pivotal debate about U.S. destiny--a conversation he hopes to revitalize. There should be constant dialog about the past and present, he argues, but during these divided times, Americans lack a sense of national unity and the ability to converse about the present and future, informed by the past. Drawing from his intimate knowledge of the Founding Fathers, Ellis addresses four 21st-century obstacles to reveal truths from their writings that should infuse wisdom into present-day debate: Thomas Jefferson's inconsistency on slavery and race; John Adams's warnings about financial aristocracy and economic inequality; James Madison's politically expedient concessions and the idea of original intent; and George Washington's approach to national and foreign policy, and the incompatibility of American imperialism with revolutionary ideals. Each discussion relates the historical lessons to the ongoing problem. Finally, Ellis explains why the ingenious but flawed founders were uniquely suited for revolution and government-creating. VERDICT Ellis's compelling historical examples and astute analysis will raise questions and ignite debate. This work should be read by academics and general readers alike. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/18.]--Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2018

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ellis examines contemporary issues by asking, "What would the Founding Fathers think?" Here are Jefferson on racism, Adams on economic inequality, Washington on American imperialism, and Madison on the doctrine of original intent, addressing interpretations of the Constitution. A way out of our contemporary political paralysis? With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.