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Article: Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation.
- Article from:
- The Journal of Southern History
- Article date:
- May 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Southern Historical Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Joseph J. Ellis. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Pp. [xii], 288. $26.00, ISBN 0-375-40544-5.)
Joseph Ellis introduces his notes at the back of Founding Brothers with the following disclaimer: "The awkward truth is that this book represents a distillation of my reading in the historical literature on the revolutionary era over the past thirty years" (p. 249). However, there's nothing awkward about this book. Rather than pronouncing truth from an ivory tower, the author writes in a breezy, conversational style that invites discussion: "Here are my thoughts," Ellis seems to be saying, "what are yours?" The dominant theme of the book is that current scholarly ...