BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 27, 2000 ISSUE
BOOKS When Egos Deferred to Duty FOUNDING BROTHERS The Revolutionary Generation By Joseph J. Ellis Knopf -- 304pp -- $26 Political reputations hung in the balance last week. Few fared as poorly as the Founding Fathers, whose electoral college was portrayed as a crude, destabilizing anachronism. And yet, in the suspenseful days following Nov. 7, respect for the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of political power only highlighted the strength of the institutions these men forged. In any one of dozens of other countries, party leaders might have dispatched tanks, not ex-Secretaries of State, to settle the dispute. In his suddenly newsworthy book, Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis sets out to explain the wellsprings of this remarkable political durability and flexibility. He unearths no new historical evidence, but it would be unfair to fault him on such academic grounds. As in American Sphinx, Ellis' National Book Award-winning study of the enigmatic Thomas Jefferson, Brothers takes on timeworn topics and leavens them with telling details and even psychoanalysis. What emerges are bustling stories that achieve Ellis' goal of describing how our early republic ''looked and felt.'' Ellis works here from a weaker thesis than in his previous books. In fact, it's not so much a thesis as it is a narrative setup. He begins by pointing out that Americans now view the success of the nation as a ''foreordained unfolding of God's will,'' then demonstrates that nothing was certain in the chaotic decades after the Declaration of Independence. America could have easily splintered into regional republics or fallen to the killing machine of the British military. The country, says the Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College, was ''an improvisational affair, in which sheer chance, pure luck...and specific decisions'' determined not just the country's survival as a fledgling, but the institutions and character that make it the world's longest-running republic. To illustrate this, Ellis tunnels deep into the historical record, ignoring discussions of political philosophy and even the role of everyday citizens. He delights in describing the day-to-day worlds of eight Revolutionary-era leaders. The group is now amorphously tagged the Founding Fathers, but their allegiances and rivalries make them the passionate, combative pack of Founding Brothers. The cast of characters: John and Abigail Adams (essentially as a team), Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. Ellis' lucid style helps capture the essence of these men and that of their young country. In six 30-40 page vignettes, he describes how each weighed his or her own ego against duty to the new country. Take one of Ellis' early installments. During a private dinner party hosted by Jefferson, the then Vice-President convinces rivals Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and Virginia congressman James Madison to compromise on two crucial issues: Hamilton agrees to the establishment of a capital, Washington, D.C., on a plot in the Virginia wilderness. Meanwhile, Madison consents to Hamilton's demands that the states' old debts be assumed by the national government. While neither side was happy about the pact, Ellis says it helped create financial legitimacy for the nation while mollifying the linchpin state of Virginia during a period of fragile unity. This is extremely well-trodden territory. But Ellis has such command of the subject matter that it feels fresh, particularly as he segues from psychological to political, even to physical analysis. In the course of a few paragraphs, Ellis describes Jefferson's lingering migraine headaches, breaks down the national debt, and provides an analysis of Madison's political journey from supporter to detractor of Hamilton. The author's diverse skills are especially evident in his retelling of the infamous morning duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Ellis gives a detailed account of the confrontation, and seems to get at the political and personal enmities that probably played out in the duelists' minds. He is less successful in describing some of the written records of the period, such as the correspondence between the aged Jefferson and Adams. The author sheepishly concedes that his method may seem quaint to some readers. He takes a head-on, almost reverential approach to Great Men in an era that favors ''outsider'' history, consisting mainly of accounts of economically marginal groups. As the author of several books on the Revolutionary era, he retains the right to rummage among the American patriarchs. Unfortunately, for that same reason, some of his material on Jefferson and Adams may feel stale to those who have read American Sphinx or Passionate Sage, his study of John Adams. Brothers carries a bit of a commercial taint, like a rock album in which old songs have been repackaged with new cover art and some spare B-sides. Never mind. As the country endures its first political crisis of the 21st century, Ellis' storytelling helps us more fully hear the Brothers' voices. Standing out is none other than Jefferson. Describing the dinner-table compromise he brokered but loathed, he realizes ''the necessity of yielding for this time...for the sake of the union, and to save us from the greatest of all calamities.'' By DENNIS K. BERMAN Berman studies the history of technology as an e-business reporter. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS When Egos Deferred to Duty PHOTO: Cover, ``Founding Brothers'' INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

Copyright 2000-2008, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use   Privacy Notice