Recommended Readings
Books on Leading FoundersThis is the best one-volume biography of Washington from his most accomplished biographer, who has also written a comprehensive four-volume biography for the more adventuresome reader. Not simply an abridged version of the larger work, it is an original and very readable biography written for a general audience.
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This is not a life history of Washington but an analysis of his career and character as a soldier, founder, and statesman, presented in highly readable, thematic chapters. The author calls it a moral biography, intended to show how Washington navigated life and politics as a public figure.
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This work is a popular study of Washington's political thought as found in his major writings, arguing that Washington's project was not only to start a nation but to establish a national character. The book focuses on the Farewell Address of 1796, placing the writing in historical context and looking at how it has affected our political debate both past and present.
This book argues that George Washington was a committed and consistent constitutionalist throughout his life, and led--rather than followed--opinion concerning a continental government for the new nation. A more academic study, but readable nonetheless, it includes a good analysis of the Washington presidency.
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Benjamin Franklin
A solid, modern biography that is a bit more scholarly but highly readable. It includes a good closing essay on Franklin's continuing relevance.
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A scholarly study of Franklin's political thought, with a focus on his views concerning international security, national self-interest and the new diplomacy of the 18th century. It includes particular chapters on Franklin's opinions on the French Alliance and the peace settlement with Great Britain.This sweeping work of popular history covers all of Adams's life, with due prominence on his relationships with wife Abigail and fellow patriot Thomas Jefferson. The bestseller makes a strong case for Adams's importance, despite its weakness of neglecting Adams's intellectual contributions to the American Founding.
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A weighty but good biography that draws heavily on original texts. More academic than the McCullough biography, and perhaps less easy to read, but much more substantive and comprehensive.
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This is a more academic work that focuses on Adams's major works to show how his political thought, particularly on constitutional development and political architecture, is relevant to the formation of American political ideals.
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A good analysis of Adams's political thought, focusing on his post-presidential years, this is one of the first books to spark the recent revival in Adams's scholarship. It considers his mature ideas and character in order to assess his proper place in the Founding generation.
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Though long, this is the standard--and most balanced--one volume Jefferson biography, providing a basic narrative and highlighting three dominant themes of Jefferson's career: democracy and popular government, the new American nationality, and philosophical enlightenment. Solidly grounded in Jefferson's writings, but intended more for the general reader than the scholar.
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This is the first volume of the majestic, multi-volume (and decidedly sympathetic) biography Jefferson and his Time, published between 1948 and 1977. The volumes deal with Jefferson's life through the American Revolution (Vol. 1), his time in Paris through the first Washington administration (Vol. 2), from then through the election in 1800 (Vol. 3), his first (Vol. 4) and second (Vol. 5) presidential terms, and the his retirement (Vol. 6).
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Rather than the popular view of Jefferson as the champion of unrestrained democracy, this work focuses on Jefferson's philosophy of government, emphasizing his commitment to liberty, self-government, and written constitutions rigorously adhered to.
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A brief but thorough and highly readable critical history of the politics and policies, both domestic and foreign, of Jefferson and his two terms as the nation's third president.
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Alexander Hamilton: A BiographyBy Forrest McDonald (W. W. Norton, 1990)An excellent political biography explaining Hamilton's greatest contributions in finance, economics, and law. It convincingly makes the case for the first secretary of the treasury's importance to the political economy of the early American Republic.
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This thematic, popular biography by the author of Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington captures the dynamic Hamilton and credits him with originating American capitalism.
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A scholarly book on Hamilton's political thought in the context of his and his contemporaries' understanding of republican government and its application to American politics in light of the great ideas--revolution, popular sovereignty, the public good, foreign policy--confronting the Founders between 1760 and 1800.This academic study argues that Hamilton sought to combine the strength necessary for war with the restraint required by the rule of law, popular consent, and individual rights to help found the world's most durable republican empire.
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This comprehensive and lengthy volume is one of the best Madison biographies, and it is accessible to general readers and scholars alike. It is a very thorough historical narrative and distillation of both the ideas and the man, with a good emphasis on his role in the Continental Congress and at the Constitutional Convention.
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This relatively short but solid biography focuses on Madison's public life, as a skillful leader and a brilliant political thinker, to emphasize how he successfully combined serious ideas and practical politics to the benefit of the new nation.
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This academic consideration of Madison's political thought argues that his understanding of the social compact, the nature of the Founding and the origins of the Constitution are not just of historical significance but can shed light on current issues such as diversity, constitutional interpretation, and federalism.
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This highly readable yet scholarly work focuses on Madison's years of retirement from 1817 to his death in 1836. It is a consideration of his later political thought looking back on the earlier Founding period, dealing with his views on questions such as nullification, political economy, and slavery.
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Perhaps the best single-volume history of the American Revolution, it covers the period from 1763 to 1789, and considers the political, military, social, economic, and constitutional aspects of the time, taking a balanced look at all of the parties and issues involved.
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A sweeping narrative of the American Revolution that takes the reader from Lexington Green to the Battle of Yorktown, describing in novel-like fashion the major battles and the main characters, juxtaposing the patriot George Washington and the traitor Benedict Arnold.
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This compelling book retells the common tale of Paul Revere's famous midnight ride and the ensuing skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in a narrative that is at the same time readable and scholarly. It argues that the conflict was not the spontaneous uprising of legend but an organized and active resistance.
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This is the best military history of the colonial and Founding era. It follows battles and campaigns as well as military policy and popular attitudes toward war, tracing the interaction between warfare and society and how that affected civil and military institutions in the United States.
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A wonderful work that brings the American Revolution to life through important vignettes along the way, highlighting those who fought it in the political and military arenas, from James Otis in 1761 to George Washington at Yorktown in 1783.
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This narrative traces the Revolution's origins from the end of the Seven Years War, emphasizing the common soldiers' views of the American War of Independence to how they came to see it as a glorious cause not just for independence but to form a new nation. It focuses on questions of governance, politics, constitutionalism, and war; and ties popular convictions about rights and politics to the colonists' religious convictions.
These three charming narrative histories read like novels. Drawing on an enormous range of sources, including diaries and letters by officers and common soldiers, and vivid descriptions and arresting portraits of participants, each book in the series (originally published in the 1970s) tells the story surrounding a decisive battle of the American Revolutionary War.
Order from Amazon: Decisive Day | Winter Soliders | Saratoga
Rossiter, the editor of the most widely read edition of The Federalist Papers, examines the meeting that created the Constitution in this very readable (and trustworthy) work, focusing on the setting, men, events, and consequences of the federal convention through the early years of the new Republic. A number of related documents are also included.This popular (but less authoritative) narrative of the Constitutional Convention focuses narrowly on the participants and the day-to-day convention debate in almost novel-like form.
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This is a more succinct and charming version of the Rossiter book on the events surrounding the Constitutional Convention, written by the scholar who compiled the definitive collection of the notes and records of the meeting.
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A clear and convincing historical study of the constitutional issues surrounding the creation of the Bill of Rights, looking at the philosophical arguments behind these guarantees and how Madison crafted the first 10 amendments then shepherded them through the First Congress.
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A classic and substantive work on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution by one of its early scholars and one of the greatest justices of the Supreme Court. A reprint of the 1833 edition includes histories of various colonies, of the Revolutionary and of the Confederation periods; it also includes straight-forward commentaries on the clauses of the Constitution.
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A brief introduction to the thought of the anti-Federalists, who opposed the ratification of the Constitution and wanted a small republic, more federalism, and a bill of rights, among other things. It also considers their affect on enduring themes of American political life such as a concern for big government and the infringement of personal liberty.
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A good explanation of the four major military conflicts that were spin-offs of European wars and that dominated the American continent--thus contributing to a want of independence--in the years before the Founding era: King William's War (1689-97), Queen Anne's War (1702-13), King George's War (1744-48) and the French and Indian War (1755-62).
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An older, but still useful history of the events leading up to the American Revolution that chronicles the various British acts against the colonials from the beginning of the French and Indian War to the Declaration of Independence.
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The story of the American Revolution told in a concise, readable manner, explaining how 13 colonies came together over British tax policy and established their own constitutional principles to protect their freedom. The best, short history of the era.
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This comparative biography reconstructs the lives of three of the greatest Founders from their youths through their participation in the American Revolution, providing a wide view of their participation in the Revolution as well as more intimate looks at their individual struggles.
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This work views the American Founding though the intertwined experiences of seven leaders of the period, looking at six discrete moments that exemplify the time.
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This lengthy work traces the development of the new nation from the time after the Constitutional Convention through its first three presidents. A comprehensive analysis of the early national period, including all the achievements and fights of the chief figures.
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A detailed study, stretching from the First Continental Congress to the Civil War, argues persuasively that early trends in the colonies were against slavery and that the U.S. Constitution is not a pro-slavery document, despite later policies that supported the institution.
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An interpretative history of American diplomacy from the Treaty of Paris in 1763 to the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson, showing how pre-Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary diplomacy developed consistently over time to reinforce--and play a vital role in creating--a united country seeking independence in a hostile world.This work examines the creation and history of the presidency and by looking at the political theorists who influenced the Founders, at the Constitutional Convention, the precedent-setting terms of Washington, and at Jefferson and the evolution of the office's expressed and implied powers.
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This nicely written book argues that from the very beginning the American Founders not only believed that they were acting reasonably but also believed that they were carrying out God's commandment. A counterbalance to the popular emphasis on secular history, it also includes an appendix on several forgotten Founders.
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A collection of seven compelling essays on church-state relations in the early Republic, conveying the variety of accommodations that existed between religion and public order in the formative period of American history.
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This brief but forceful booklet is a powerful argument for the significance of America as the first regime in Western civilization to provide for the coexistence of the claims of reason and of revelation, through the establishment of religious liberty, thus making possible the blessings of free government.This work argues that the Founders and their immediate successors wanted religion to play a dynamic, positive role in American politics, and examines religious political activism from 1800 to 1835 to show the success of an earlier understanding of church-state relations in conformity with their intent.
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A very good anthology of 24 interpretative essays by earlier scholars--such as Bernard Bailyn, Perry Miller, Forrest McDonald, Douglas Adair, and Martin Diamond--that provides a broad introduction to the leading (and disagreeing) schools of modern scholarship on the American Founding.
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A strong collection of essays that bring together differing viewpoints on the roles and motivations of the framers of the Constitution. Includes a selection from Charles Beard's historic An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution as well as essays attacking and essays defending Beard's thesis.
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This is a collection of 11 short but scholarly essays on the political thought of the American Founding by authors such as Merrill Peterson, Jack Rackove, Harry V. Jaffa, and Henry Steele Commager. The essays address topics such as classical political thought, John Locke, equality, natural rights, and the Enlightenment in relation to American thought.
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