A topic on which I frequently story tell and teach is U.S. history. (Im booking a lot of live shows right now on this subject, especially with Classical Conversations groups, who will be studying U.S. history this coming year. The sessions include true stories from our founding, through the Civil War era and on through the mid-1990s.) Meanwhile, in answer to many inquiries, here are two marvelously written books on the founding era. My favorite, FOUNDING BROTHERS, wonthe Pulitzer for its author, Joseph J. Ellis. He also wrote terrific single bios of Jefferson, Adams and Washington, but this one, Ellis best so far, covers six turning points and the participants, including Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Hamilton, Burr and Franklin. * A very different, less well-known book, is THE FOUNDERS ON THE FOUNDERS, edited by John P. Kaminski. Each chapter collects remarks ABOUT one or another of the great founders BY THE OTHER FOUNDERS and their contemporaries. This provides a revealing look at the real people, not their marble statues, and there are many memorable remarks, both in praise and in criticism, that go right to the heart of a subject: I had never come across Daniel Websters description of Washington as the great cement that held everything together. What a perfect image.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 17:15:14 +0000
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