Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation

1025 Words5 Pages
RR2 HST 201 Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation By Joseph J. Ellis The book Founding Brothers focuses on the main political figures associated with the years following the American Revolution and the split from the British Empire. I found the book to be quite informational and offers a different take on the way the founding members of our country came together to form the government we have today. This book takes an interesting approach in the way it deals with the sequence of events that played out with the foundation of America. It starts off with the Hamilton Burr duel and works its way through the deals struck to position the national capitol in Washington D.C as well as the most interesting part of the book with the title of the chapter being The Silence. Ellis also does a great job of describing the friendship and fallout of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton/Burr duel of 1804 Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were locked in a bitter political feud due to the slights to Burrs character by Hamilton. Burr was the current Vice President of the country at the time of the feud between the two. The ordeal of the feud sent a shockwave around the country due to Hamilton’s death. Burr’s reputation was ruined and his political career was over. The people of America couldn’t believe that two people with such great influence that were considered gentlemen would participate in such a barbaric act. The story behind the duel as described by Ellis is that Hamilton continually took jabs at Burr in the press and basically painted himself into a corner when challenged by Burr to the Duel. The Death of Hamilton and the end of Burr’s career could have easily been avoided if the men didn’t have such huge egos. The proper way to handle the differences between the two, especially since they were key figures would have been to sit down and talk to each
Open Document