Joseph J. Ellis

A masterful examination of the early years of the American Republic analyzes the eventful last quarter of the eighteenth century, the accomplishments of the American founders, and the triumphs and failures that shaped the early nation and the American character. 650,000 first printing.

Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic

American Creation

Jeni Enjaian

I approached this book with the mindset of attempting to analyze Ellis' approach to this oft written about time period. Unfortunately, his mindset disgusted me. He started off on the wrong foot by maligning historians researching and writing about marginalized people of the time period, aka minorities and women. He flat out calls them wrong for doing so. (Don't even get me started on that.) Most of the rest of the narrative progresses with little depth and copious opinion making, mentioning yet skating over the troublesome aspects of many of the "Founding Fathers." Then he gets to Jefferson. Much of what Ellis writes in this section, an odd section set after the quarter century (1776-1800) that Ellis purports to analyze, about the Louisiana purchase, reads like a hagiography of Jefferson. In these couple chapters, Ellis attempts to claim that Jefferson really truly believed every word that he wrote in the Declaration and that those words applied to everyone. He just didn't advocate for ending slavery because he believed that it would damn the fledgling republic. Yeah...no.

American Creation Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic

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