Founding Brothers

Joseph J. Ellis is the author of several books of American history, among them Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the 1997 National Book Award. He was educated at the College of William and Mary and Yale University and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with his wife, Ellen, and three sons.

出版者:Knopf

作者:Joseph J. Ellis

页数:304

出版时间:2000-10-17

价格:USD 32.50

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780375405440

图书标签:美国历史学历史人物历史history

An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic--John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

During the 1790s, which Ellis calls the most decisive decade in our nation's history, the greatest statesmen of their generation--and perhaps any--came together to define the new republic and direct its course for the coming centuries. Ellis focuses on six discrete moments that exemplify the most crucial issues facing the fragile new nation: Burr and Hamilton's deadly duel, and what may have really happened; Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison's secret dinner, during which the seat of the permanent capital was determined in exchange for passage of Hamilton's financial plan; Franklin's petition to end the "peculiar institution" of slavery--his last public act--and Madison's efforts to quash it; Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address, announcing his retirement from public office and offering his country some final advice; Adams's difficult term as Washington's successor and his alleged scheme to pass the presidency on to his son; and finally, Adams and Jefferson's renewed correspondence at the end of their lives, in which they compared their different views of the Revolution and its legacy.

In a lively and engaging narrative, Ellis recounts the sometimes collaborative, sometimes archly antagonistic interactions between these men, and shows us the private characters behind the public personas: Adams, the ever-combative iconoclast, whose closest political collaborator was his wife, Abigail; Burr, crafty, smooth, and one of the most despised public figures of his time; Hamilton, whose audacious manner and deep economic savvy masked his humble origins; Jefferson, renowned for his eloquence, but so reclusive and taciturn that he rarely spoke more than a few sentences in public; Madison, small, sickly, and paralyzingly shy, yet one of the most effective debaters of his generation; and the stiffly formal Washington, the ultimate realist, larger-than-life, and America's only truly indispensable figure.

Ellis argues that the checks and balances that permitted the infant American republic to endure were not primarily legal, constitutional, or institutional, but intensely personal, rooted in the dynamic interaction of leaders with quite different visions and values. Revisiting the old-fashioned idea that character matters, Founding Brothers informs our understanding of American politics--then and now--and gives us a new perspective on the unpredictable forces that shape history.

读后感

作者提供了如何看待历史事件的一个方法框架。既置身于历史事件之中观察其细节并分析体会当时的情境，又以后代的眼光从更遥远宏大的角度去观察。如开篇中作者对“后见之明”的看法： 后见之明是一种很微妙的东西。一方面，我们若过于依赖它，就会忽视这样一个事实：偶然性是无所...

甲骨文系列已经看完三本了。这本是最棒的，不像第一本《忽必烈的挑战》真是翻译就是个干涸的贝加尔湖！内容也是跟我现在桌边那个大饼子一样，不对，大饼子还有营养呢，这没有。《奠基者》这本确实很棒。 现在的美国，每个方面，每个特点，几乎都可以在独立战争那...  

Hindsight, then, is a tricky tool. Too much of it and we obscure the all-pervasive sense of contingency as well as the problematic character of the choices facing the revolutionary generation. On the other hand, without some measure of hindsight, some panor...  

我们已经无法回到过去，但我们可以无限接近过去。这本书把六个距离我们遥远且抽象的历史事件具象为一个个详细有趣的故事。在这本书，你可以看到汉密尔顿和伯尔决斗之日的服装、天气地点，甚至他俩谁先开枪，开枪前后的纠结想法等等，作者就像一位到达现场的调查记者，呈现一个...  

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我怕我看着看着看着就睡着了。。。。

我怕我看着看着看着就睡着了。。。。