The Revolutionary Generation in 2 years & 8 days.

August 6th, 2001 – A good friend of mine referred this book to me. By the end of 2001 I had purchased a copy on-line at a fairly reasonable price. During the spring of 2002 I started reading chapter one and was half way through the chapter when I put the book away. My personal interests were distracted and I started reading Sci-Fi novels again. Here it is 2 years later and in June I picked up this book again and started reading from the beginning, I now regret ever putting the book down.

Politics is an interesting past time; it transcends both the past and the future, as it is in our everyday lives all year round. It is politics that we use when trying to decide with two other friends what movie to go watch together. It is politics when trying to sway someone to date you instead of someone else. It is politics when a child goes and asks a parent for permission to do something even after the other parent has already said no.

This book illustrates the politics between some of our most famous founding fathers; George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin and Abigail Adams. Yes that is correct, Abigail Adams, wife of our second President; John Adams. This book shows her relevance and impact on the molding of our nation during the fledgling years. Founding Brothers is not a “factual-only” time line, in fact I find that it jumps around a bit and overlaps from chapter to chapter yet remains intact and coherent. In short it is easy to follow along with.

There are details of not only how, and why, but explains the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. It explains how these two men were friends separated by political choices in life. The dredges of political parties pushing them farther apart to only find themselves at the cross roads of honor bound gentlemen in a duel. The chapter goes on to reveal how the fatal shot to wards Hamilton was perhaps accidental, that Burr only meant to wound Hamilton. However the less than precise pistols did more damage than was intended; Hamilton paid the price for it mortally and Burr paid for it politically.

Founding Brothers describes the behind the scenes supporting actions of perhaps the first political brokerage of the United States. Hamilton was our nations first Secretary of Treasury and was working on consolidating the debt occurred by the 13 colonies during the Revolutionary war. James Madison then a congressman in senate was leading the blockage of this debt consolidation. The course of this brokerage started at then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson’s house. Founding Brothers reveals motivations behind the scenes of this brokerage.

I liked how Founding Brothers captured the essence of Washington and his administration. I got misty eyed with the on again off again relationship between Jefferson and the Adams family. Especially when Jefferson was ripped apart by Abigail Adams in a correspondence letter for his actions against Abigail’s husband John Adams. I thought Founding Brothers painted Jefferson in a comedic villain role.

Jefferson had Madison plugging away for him on the campaign trail and the running joke was that everyone knew Jefferson was running for the Presidency except for Jefferson. Jefferson would get into correspondence with others on a frequent basis and his correspondence was seemingly ludicrous at the time. As other would write of politics Jefferson would respond with his theories of crop rotation and other farm related topics, all the while answering their political questions.

Founding Brothers is a book about political clicks, which hung out with whom and did whose dirty business. It all seems so matter of fact now days as it happened in a big orchestrated production, but this book reminds us that it was not planned, it was real it was everyday. Founding brothers takes the blurbs from your history books in school, finds the little nuance or one paragraph mention and goes into casual detail expanding the relevance and impact of that blurb.

I have read several books in my life to date, and almost never have I reread any of them. This book is one I will consider reading again in the near future. I enjoyed it very much.