Revolution & Founding Books

John Adams

David McCullough

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 781 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Illuminating 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I'll be honest: prior to reading this book I knew precious little about John Adams. I assumed he was very much the "obnoxious and disliked" man portrayed in the musical 1776 who had the unfortunate task of following up George Washington as President. Yet having read David McCullough's book my viewpoint has changed thanks to this well written book.

With John Adams author David McCullough has brought one of the most overlooked founding fathers back to life. McCullough's book reads not like a biography but rather like a novel. Many biographies simply focus on the events of that person's life but not necessarily the influences upon them but that is something that McCullough does admirable. He does not simply tell us about Adams or his actions but traces the life of this amazing man.

McCullough does this is a number of ways. McCullough brings to life the various stages that Adams life played out upon with a skill usually reserved for novelists, the best examples being Philadelphia in the lead up to the Declaration being signed and Adams retirement. McCullough also makes the various people who populate the events of Adams life not just names (both famous and obscure) but true living people as well. Yet perhaps the biggest way that McCullough brings Adams to life is by making extensive use of the correspondence of Adams and his beloved wife Abigail. While Adams might be a founding father he was also a human being, an ordinary man in extraordinary times to evoke a cliché, and that is something that the correspondence that peepers the book makes clear.

With the skills of a novelist McCullough paints an amazing portrait of an amazing man. From studying the influences of Adams early life to bringing to life the various places Adams visited to the use of the correspondence of Adams and his wife Abigail, this is no ordinary biography. David McCullough's John Adams is the illumination of history and a highly readable biography.

Editorial Review:

In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as "out of his senses"; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the most moving love stories in American history.

This is history on a grand scale -- a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.

1776

David McCullough

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 656 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King's men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.

At the center of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books -- Nathanael Greene, a Quaker who was made a general at thirty-three, and Henry Knox, a twenty-five-year-old bookseller who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the dead of winter.

But it is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost -- Washington, who had never before led an army in battle. Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.

From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 (Oxford History of the United States)

George C. Herring

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation in print. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize-winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of prestigious Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. From Colony to Superpower is the only thematic volume commissioned for the series. Here George C. Herring uses foreign relations as the lens through which to tell the story of America's dramatic rise from thirteen disparate colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast to the world's greatest superpower.
A sweeping account of United States' foreign relations and diplomacy, this magisterial volume documents America's interaction with other peoples and nations of the world. Herring tells a story of stunning successes and sometimes tragic failures, captured in a fast-paced narrative that illuminates the central importance of foreign relations to the existence and survival of the nation, and highlights its ongoing impact on the lives of ordinary citizens. He shows how policymakers defined American interests broadly to include territorial expansion, access to growing markets, and the spread of an "American way" of life. And Herring does all this in a story rich in human drama and filled with epic events. Statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin and Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman and Dean Acheson played key roles in America's rise to world power. But America's expansion as a nation also owes much to the adventurers and explorers, the sea captains, merchants and captains of industry, the missionaries and diplomats, who discovered or charted new lands, developed new avenues of commerce, and established and defended the nation's interests in foreign lands.
From the American Revolution to the fifty-year struggle with communism and conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, From Colony to Superpower tells the dramatic story of America's emergence as superpower--its birth in revolution, its troubled present, and its uncertain future.

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation

Cokie Roberts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Founding Mothers, Cokie Roberts paid homage to the heroic women whose patriotism and sacrifice helped create a new nation. Now the number one New York Times bestselling author and renowned political commentator—praised in USA Today as a "custodian of time-honored values"—continues the story of early America's influential women with Ladies of Liberty. In her "delightfully intimate and confiding" style (Publishers Weekly), Roberts presents a colorful blend of biographical portraits and behind-the-scenes vignettes chronicling women's public roles and private responsibilities.

Recounted with the insight and humor of an expert storyteller and drawing on personal correspondence, private journals, and other primary sources—many of them previously unpublished—Roberts brings to life the extraordinary accomplishments of women who laid the groundwork for a better society. Almost every quotation here is written by a woman, to a woman, or about a woman. From first ladies to freethinkers, educators to explorers, this exceptional group includes Abigail Adams, Margaret Bayard Smith, Martha Jefferson, Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa Catherine Adams, Eliza Hamilton, Theodosia Burr, Rebecca Gratz, Louisa Livingston, Rosalie Calvert, Sacajawea, and others. In a much-needed addition to the shelves of Founding Father literature, Roberts sheds new light on the generation of heroines, reformers, and visionaries who helped shape our nation, giving these ladies of liberty the recognition they so greatly deserve.

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic (Vintage)

Joseph J. Ellis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Creation minus One 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Joseph Ellis is a well-known writer of popular histories, winner of both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, so I began American Creation with high expectations. Of course, the major players at the Founding have filled countless books. As the author points out, it's tough to even-handedly write about men who were early cast as heroes or villains in our now almost mythological past. Like his "Founding Brothers," "American Creation" is a series of sketches. Each chapter examines the principal actors at a pivotal moment in the history of the Founding. Ellis begins with Adams, subject of his "Passionate Sage," then moves to the equally familiar Washington, the subject of "His Excellency." Next is James Madison, who was, briefly, during the Constitutional Convention, less Virginian than Nationalist. Rarely mentioned failures are also included in Ellis' story: the treaty-by-treaty betrayal of the Native Americans, and the avoidance of the slavery issue in order to win ratification for the Constitution. The evolution of political parties, and the author's fascination with the brilliant, slippery Jefferson segues into a final chapter on the Louisiana Purchase. In that one stroke, America changed from coastline bound Republic to continental Empire. What was missing-and what I expected from any book titled "American Creation" was the usual--any discussion of the innovative economic foundation upon which the modern U.S. stands. To any reader interested in this essential topic, the dollars and cents as well as the high flown ideals, I'd suggest Forrest McDonald's "Hamilton." Professor McDonald is a fierce partisan of his currently unpopular hero, but his discussion of the financial miracle Hamilton worked, saving the new born republic and laying the groundwork for the Purchase, is succinct and illuminating.

Editorial Review:

Acclaimed historian Joseph J. Ellis brings his unparalleled talents to this riveting account of the early years of the Republic.

The last quarter of the eighteenth century remains the most politically creative era in American history, when a dedicated group of men undertook a bold experiment in political ideals. It was a time of both triumphs and tragedies—all of which contributed to the shaping of our burgeoning nation. Ellis casts an incisive eye on the gradual pace of the American Revolution and the contributions of such luminaries as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, and brilliantly analyzes the failures of the founders to adequately solve the problems of slavery and the treatment of Native Americans. With accessible prose and stunning eloquence, Ellis delineates in American Creation an era of flawed greatness, at a time when understanding our origins is more important than ever.

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

Joseph J. Ellis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 387 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this landmark work of history, the National Book Award—winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals–Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison–confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation.

The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790. During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers–re-examined here as Founding Brothers–combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. Through an analysis of six fascinating episodes–Hamilton and Burr’s deadly duel, Washington’s precedent-setting Farewell Address, Adams’ administration and political partnership with his wife, the debate about where to place the capital, Franklin’s attempt to force Congress to confront the issue of slavery and Madison’s attempts to block him, and Jefferson and Adams’ famous correspondence–Founding Brothers brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation’s history.

The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics)

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Clinton Rossiter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Why we are who we are. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

You will not know American History without reading these papers. I am a history major and forget or never realized the importance of these papers. I know I never read them in college.

For all fredom lovers 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Must read for those who wish to understand the US Constitution in it basic understanding from the writers of the USC

The Federalist Papers 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Federalist Papers need no review. They are classics in American History and were the basis for convincing the Colonials that the Constitution was a sound structure for the new Government.

Required reading 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Every American high schooler should be required to read and understand this book and the importance of our founding fathers' principals, so important, yet so misunderstood today.

federalist papers 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

THE FEDERALISTS PAPERS is a must read for those who wish to know how a Republic works.

Editorial Review:

The documents thatshaped a nation.

Three of the founding fathers brilliantly defend their revolutionary charter: the Constitution of the United States, a milestone in political science and a classic of American history.

Alexander Hamilton

Ron Chernow

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 250 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A forgotten Founding Father! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ron Chernow has written another well detailed and well researched biography of a man who is indeed not as well known in the formation of the government of the United States.
It seems Chernow's writings lean toward people who are often misunderstood. Such is the case on his biography of John D. Rockefeller.
Although Mr. Chernow is not an academic historian, he does the due diligence of an historian. As stated in Janet Mislin's New York Times Book Review, Mr. Chernow actually visited the jail cell in St. Croix where Hamilton's mother was imprisoned for adultery.
Also in Chernow's prologue of this book, we find out that Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the widow of Alexander Hamilton was still alive into the 1850's. The last of a generation who was at the birth of the United States.
The author goes into the remarkable career of a bastard child who later became a man so crucial in the formation of our government. His exploits as a young officer during the Revolutionary War serving George Washington are well detailed by Chernow. His prominence as a key figure in the writings of the Federalist Papers which help to debate and form the Constitution of the United States is indeed apparent in Chernow's prose. Later Hamilton was responsible for the lasting effects of the formation of the U.S. Treasury. His plan of Assumption of the States debts and the formation of the Bank of the United States are the result of Hamilton's work.
Hamilton was opinionated and very aggressive in all his dealings. He indeed was a thorn in the side of Thomas Jefferson and also fellow Federalist John Adams. He was brilliant and verbose. He was indeed an agitator.
His hubris and beliefs led him to the plains of Weehawken where he was shot by Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States, and subsequently died.
That ended that! At the age of 49 Alexander Hamilton died of wounds suffered in a duel with Mr. Burr on July 12, 1804. Thirty-one hours later Mr. Hamilton passed away in New York City.
Chernow's book is excellent. Bully for him. Five Stars!!! If I could give six stars I would!!!!

Editorial Review:

Ron Chernow, the renowned author of Titan whom the New York Times has called “as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we’ve seen in decades,” vividly re-creates the whole sweep of Alexander Hamilton’s turbulent life—his exotic, brutal upbringing; his titanic feuds with celebrated rivals; his pivotal role in defining the shape of the federal government and the American economy; his shocking illicit romances; his enlightened abolitionism; and his famous death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July 1804. Drawing upon extensive, unparalleled research— including nearly fifty previously undiscovered essays highlighting Hamilton’s fiery journalism as well as his revealing missives to colleagues and friends—this biography of the extraordinarily gifted founding father who galvanized, inspired, and scandalized the newborn nation is the work by which all others will be measured.

Essential Thomas Paine: Common Sense, The Rights of Man

Thomas Paine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good collection, poor introduction 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This little paperback is conveniently sized and conveniently priced. Were it not for the bothersome introduction, I would have gladly given it five stars. As it stands, however, I could do without radical leftist Sidney Hook's presumptuous introduction, wherein he arrogantly dictates to me precisely how I should read Thomas Paine, and in what manner Mr. Paine is correct and incorrect in his reasoning. Ripping out the introduction or going over it line-by-line with a black sharpie would be a marked improvement to this volume.

Freedom and Rights of man 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have read much on the history of our beautiful country and also of other countries as well.

This book by Thomas Paine "COMMON SENSE AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN" is an extraordinary out line of how man should form his government and live in harmony with his fellow man in this world. Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers, is a man that saw the rights of man being trampled on by England. His writing is plain common sense, of which many of us fail to utilize, about what a government should be and should not be. Our founding fathers gave us a Republic, if we could keep it. So far we have taken the declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights completly our of context. We are nowhere near the government our founding fathers gave us.

Those who wish to find the truth are compelled to read this book. Those who are satisified with the status quo will continue to be so. Read one of the best books ever written on the Rights of Man and then make your decision whether you want to live free men or langour in slavery.

Thomas Eby......

Editorial Review:

'This ebooks is included in the Ultimate Handheld US History Library
OVER 55,000 WORKS!
Simply the largest ebook library of American history ever published for your handheld device. For less than $0.01 per work its the most affordable.

Samuel Adams: A Life

Ira Stoll

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this stirring biography, Samuel Adams joins the first tier of founding fathers, a rank he has long deserved. With eloquence equal to that of Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine, and with a passionate love of God, Adams helped ignite the flame of liberty and made sure it glowed even during the Revolution's darkest hours. He was, as Jefferson later observed, "truly the man of the Revolution."

In a role that many Americans have not fully appreciated until now, Adams played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the bloody confrontation with the British. Believing that God had willed a free American nation, he was among the first patriot leaders to call for independence from England. He was ever the man of action: He saw the opportunity to stir things up after the Boston Massacre and helped plan and instigate the Boston Tea Party, though he did not actually participate in it. A fiery newspaper editor, he railed ceaselessly against "taxation without representation."

In a relentless blizzard of articles and speeches, Adams, a man of New England, argued the urgency of revolution. When the top British general in America, Thomas Gage, offered a general amnesty in June 1775 to all revolutionaries who would lay down their arms, he excepted only two men,ÊJohn Hancock and Samuel Adams: These two were destined for the gallows. It was this pair, author Ira Stoll argues, whom the British were pursuing in their fateful march on Lexington and Concord.

In the tradition of David McCullough's John Adams, Joseph Ellis's The Founding Brothers, and Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin, Ira Stoll's Samuel Adams vividly re-creates a world of ideas and action, reminding us that none of these men of courage knew what we know today: that they would prevail and make history anew.

The idea that especially inspired Adams was religious in nature: He believed that God had intervened on behalf of the United States and would do so as long asits citizens maintained civic virtue. "We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection," Adams insisted. A central thesis of this biography is that religion in large part motivated the founding of America.

A gifted young historian and newspaperman, Ira Stoll has written a gripping story about the man who was the revolution's moral conscience. Sure to be discussed widely, this book reminds us who Samuel Adams was, why he has been slighted by history, and why he must be remembered.