Tag Archives: Joseph Ellis

02.18.26
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250TH ANNIVERSARY/ IMPORTANT GOOD READS

Page through gordonsgoodreads.com and find numerous titles relevant to the founding of America including books on the Revolutionary War, the founding fathers and the Constitutional Conventions. There are three titles among many others that I have found most enlightening.

Two of these titles highlight the contributions of individuals whose participation have in some quarters been more obscure. John Hancock is of course contemporarily most famous for his signature! However, John Hancock by historian Willard Randall reveals the enormous contributions of this founding father leading up to the Revolution, during the war and his participation in the great debate creating the Constitution. It is an eye-opening read. Samuel Adams by historian Stacy Schiff is another revealing biography. in which she places this Adams ( second cousin of John Adams) in his rightful place in history. Separation from the British Empire by a united American Colonies may never have happened without the efforts of Samuel Adams, the first of the pamphleteers! A firebrand indeed.

In my view, Rick Atkins ranks alongside Ken Burns in depth understanding of America’s march toward independence. Two books by Atkins, The British are Coming, and Fate of The Day are first rate historical works. A third volume of the trilogy is due later this year.

There are many other titles worthy of your time, many of which are reviewed at gordonsgoodreads.com including Joseph Ellis’ new volume The GREAT CONTRADICTION, The TRAGIC SIDE of the AMERICAN FOUNDING.

Eye opening! Search gordonsgoodreads.com for more on this subject.

02.17.26
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THE GREAT CONTRADICTION/JOSEPH ELLIS

The sub title of Joseph J. Ellis‘ latest book is most descriptive of this work of non-fiction: THE TRAGIC SIDE of the AMERICAN FOUNDING.

During this current period when America Celebrates the 250th Anniversary of independence historian Ellis uncovers the deeply flawed creation on the US Constitution and the inability of the founding fathers to deal with the new nations greatest issues, slavery and the displacement of its Native Americans.

Ellis spares no detail in the conflicts and flaws among the founding fathers. He writes: This, then, is a story about failure. Next to the failure to end slavery, or at least put it on the road to extinction, the inability to reach a just accommodation with the Native Americans was the greatest failure of the revolutionary generation.

This is the story of how and why the founders failed in these two critical areas and how these unresolved critical matters have negatively resonated throughout the nation’s history. Fans of Thomas Jefferson will not be pleased Ellis’ through examination of his duplicity and hypocrisy in both the areas of slavery and Native American dispossession.

Ellis’s ending paragraph is emphatic. As for Jefferson, he will forever be remembered for his iconic eloquence in the Declaration of Independence, but his failure to live up to his own words ended in tragedy for him. his black and white families, and decades of decline for the Commonwealth he so loved.

You will meet many other historic figures in THE GREAT CONTRADICTION : George Washington, of course. Henry Knox and his role in support of Native Americans, Alexander McGillivray the consequential Creek Indian Chief and of course Madison and Monroe.

Enlightening

is an understatement!