Books Details
Author : Joseph J. Ellis Pages : 290 pages Publisher : BALLANTINE BOOKS
Language : eng ISBN-10 : 0375705244 ISBN-13 : 9780375705243
Books Descriptions
Informs our understanding of American politics--then and now--and gives us a
new perspective on the unpredictable forces that shape 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
