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The author's thesis - that the founders were brothers - in philosophy, thought, revolution and devotion to our new nation - is a correct semantic observation to a limited extent. What is presented in this book are the sibling rivalries as these brothers of '76 clashed over what the nation, constitution and the revolution itself meant twenty to thirty years later.
Ellis does this through several dramatic vignettes. He first presents the Hamilton-Burr duel - sibling rivalry taken to a fratricidal extreme. There is some interesting interpretation as to whether or not Hamilton fired "up" or "over" Burr and whether or not he fired first. But what was represented in a larger sense was a duel between avarice, opportunism and pure selfish gamesmanship (Burr), and political warfare with a larger purpose (Hamilton).
Other stories are fascinating. The tale of one of the great horse trades in U. S. History that ended up settling the seat of government on the Potomac River is detailed in "The Dinner." Ellis also covers the election of 1800, Washington's Farewell Address and the fascinating correspondence between Jefferson and Adams that ended, remarkably, on July 4th, 1826, when both died on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
I liked this book. The prose moves and as mentioned, Ellis is very good at writing interesting history. On occasion, he made a few over-the-top statements (like saying Hamilton's keeping in close contact with Adams' cabinet members verged on the treasonable), but he avoids hyperbole or the wacky revisionism that seems to be in fashion to "sell" history these days. I must admit that the more I read of Jefferson and Adams as politicians statesmen, the better Adams comes off in comparison.
These snapshots of our first governments don't tell the full story of the Federalist and Jeffersonian periods. They do, however, give a pleasing taste of the personalities and dealings as revolutionaries struggled to run the government they had made.
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