American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic

Joseph Ellis' examination of the events in the first twenty-eight years of the founding of America, between 1775 and 1803 explains the clash of armies, ideals, and personalities which culminated in the America we know. The book repeatedly stresses the fortuitousness of the outcome. At any turn that outcome might have been strikingly different, giving us an entirely different America. The government which those conflicts produced, and its principal governance document, the Constitution, comprise an equilibrium of ideals and governance theory which did not reflect those of any one founder. And the compromises required were anything but gracious. Ellis describes scores of bitterly contested issues, the charges of treason, and how some of the founders went to their graves believing that the misguided thinking of other founders would ultimately prove disastrous. No American who reads this book will ever again take for granted the genius of the Constitution, or the personal freedoms which it preserves. Most particularly, no one can ever take for granted the dynamic tension between the will of the majority and the authority of the central government which our government uniquely balances. In American Creation, Ellis also shows his craft with the written word which is so rare in historical reportage and which makes the book a pleasure to read: For Adams, the ultimate revolutionary moment came when the town meetings discussions of his May 1776 resolution "discovered whether the fruit of independence had sufficiently ripened within the people at large to permit a harvest." "The key insight, which went against all of Washington's personal instincts, was that both space and time were on the American side, so that the only way to lose the war was to try to win it." "The story of the Louisiana Purchase has as many twists and turns as the Mississippi itself, and the biggest challenge in retelling it is to avoid getting caught in the diplomatic backwaters..." Ellis devotes particular emphasis to the inherent conflict between the libertarian ideals of the new republic and the emerging country's treatment of its native population and its slaves. The author shows the personal anxiety which the founders felt when opportunities came and passed to extend to these disenfranchised and vulnerable groups the human rights which seemed so inalienable to white men. Ellis concludes that notwithstanding their two deplorable failures, we may be proud of our founders, of the government they crafted, and of our remarkable and distinctive nation.

Have you ever wondered by the founding fathers failed to address the two issues of native assimilation and chattel slavery into the organic laws of the new American nation? Joseph J. Ellis, award winning historical author has provided background and lucid reasoning, through his research, for these elemental questions. The book tells of a series events which collectively framed our nationhood and then resulted in inevitable conflicts over those two issues mentioned above. Ellis particularly offers an unknown chapter in history concerning the first-ever negotiated treaty with a native American nation, the Creeks, which would have provided for a peaceable settlement of the lands east of the Mississippi for the relentless tide of white emigrants, and the lands west of the Mississippi for the relocated natives. President Washington and Secretary of War, Henry Knox, sought a model conciliation with Alexander McGillivray, the Creek leader. This segment of our history is fresh and offered a perspective redolent with possibilities for peace and coexistence. Ellis' prologue and epilogue are my favorites stating and restating the elements covered. This book is definitely worthwhile; in fact, I recommend it be reread and revisited frequently.

Joseph Ellis has already authored a number of very well received books on early American history: Founding Brothers, American Sphinx (focusing on Thomas Jefferson), and His Excellency (about George Washington). This book is yet another very nice contribution to our understanding of the period from the Declaration of Independence through the early 19th Century. The subtitle, perhaps, says a great detail about the content of this book: "Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic." Ellis notes in his Foreword that (page xi): "This is a story, then, about tragedy as well as triumph, indeed about their mutual and inextricable coexistence." At the outset, he observes some of the great accomplishments of the Revolution and Founding: the colonies won their independence from the greatest power of the day; the Founders created the first large scale republic; they created a secular state (although I would argue that Ellis overstates matters somewhat with this statement); they divided power among states and the national government; they developed political parties as channels for ongoing debate (although, again, the Founders thought that party was evil, and their development was not understood at the time in such glowing terms). The tragedies? An unwillingness to address slavery and the status of Native Americans. In simplest terms, this represents what this book is about, the development of a new nation and innovative ways of organizing governance--coupled with inherent strains that created their own problems. One of the special talents of Ellis is his richly drawn characters. Here, Washington, once more, is drawn nicely by Ellis, so that he is not the cardboard figure that often shows up in high school textbooks. Just so, John Adams is nicely portrayed in his complexity--vastly talented, a little uncertain of his place, someone who spent enormous energy on defending his place in American history. Vignettes about the shortest American President, James Madison, and his unusual political brilliance, are telling. One nicely drawn point here: how Madison finally convinced an originally resistant George Washington to be one of Virginia's delegates to the Constitutional Convention. He spends time on key episodes, such as Washington's dawning realization that, to win the Revolutionary War, he must fight a defensive war, going against everything he wanted to do. Or the machinations of producing a document overthrowing the American government under its first Constitution, The Articles of Confederation (with Madison as a key player). The various historical set pieces conclude with the Louisiana Purchase, under Jefferson's presidency. In his brief Afterword, he contends that (page 241): "The American Founding lasted for twenty-eight years, from 1775 to 1803. The point? In that historically brief point in time, there was created on this continent a new nation, operating on principles not seen in the family of nation-states at that time. While I d

John Adams went to his grave thinking he should have gotten credit for writing the Declaration of Independence. President Washington and Henry Knox tried their best to save the Indians from extermination. Washington hosted the Indian Chief of the Creek nations for a month - with his chiefs in full Indian dress - and the chief was the biggest con artist on the continent. The farmers around Valley Forge sold food and supplies to the British while Washington's troops were starving. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison started the first political party. Whichever party occupies the White House is the one that wants extended executive privilege - even Thomas Jefferson. The other one, by default, wants more authority delegated to the states. Madison and Washington thought the end result of the Constitutional Convention was a miserable failure. The Constitution gave up too much federal authority and made the separation between branches and between federal authority and state authority vague, forcing a never-ending forum for debate in American politics. The American Revolution was almost guaranteed to succeed - as long as we virtually never engaged the enemy. This book is about several stories in American history - The Continental Congress, starring John Adams; Valley Forge, starring Washington; The Constitutional Convention, starring Madison; the Louisiana Purchase, starring Jefferson with a host of co-stars; and the forming of the first political party, starring Jefferson and Madison. Beautifully written, Ellis picks out enough to tell his stories with overall insight, adding strategic little known facts that make it interesting. Of course, in a book of this size, volumes of detail are missing, but he successfully captures the big picture. Overall, Jefferson looks worse than usually pictured - he had a chance to address the Indian question and the slavery question with the Louisiana Purchase (which fell completely into his lap), but he blew it. He also looks as much or more partisan than anyone in present day politics. Adams comes off better than I've seen him portrayed before, and Washington is his usual impeccable self. These three and all the other founders range from very interested to obsessed about their legacy in history - to the point of editing old letters and self-censoring new outgoing correspondence. Highly recommended for the general audience, this book has political insights valid to present-day politics. I may not think much of the current man in the oval office, but Ellis shows that Bush isn't the first President to have over-extended his presidential authority.

While touring to promote his Founding Brothers, Ellis was asked, "Why do we have to choose between John Kerry and George Bush when 200 years ago we could have chosen between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson?" Fascinating question, and his answer, American Creation, is a truly insightful and well-crafted book. Ellis breaks the founding down into a number of different pieces like the War for Independence, Slavery, the Louisiana Purchase, the Constitution and Native Americans. He treats all of them very even-handedly, framing them in the context of what the realities were around 1800, but also giving penetrating insights into how we might look at things differently today and why. The theme that runs throughout the book is that the people Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and Washington were fallible characters who were meaningfully different from the legends Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and Washington we see now. That said, Ellis really shows how an alignment of the right thoughts, the right time and the right opportunity conspired to pull some extraordinary things from people who might have remained unknown to history had the planets lined up differently. You come away from the book understanding far more about what the politics of the founding were really like. In some ways, they aren't as dissimilar from today's politics as we might think; in other ways, they are, but for very specific reasons that Ellis makes clear. Highly recommended for any fan of history.