Summary Of Founding Brothers By Joseph J. Ellis

Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis is an intriguing book about the founding fathers of America. Ellis writes every chapter in his point of view on how he witnessed each event that he in his book. Ellis does not keep his chapters in a chronological order, this reveals the connections between each man discussed in his book. Ellis compose his chapters in a way of informing a person about events from his life. Each chapter give the explanation to why Ellis chose to title his book to be The Founding Brothers even though he discusses events of the Founding Fathers of the United Sates Nation. Ellis purposely titled his book The Founding Brothers, he did this because through each challenge the men had to encounter they were like brothers. Ellis

Jefferson hosted the private dinner so James Madison and Alexander Hamilton could sit down alone and have a civil conversation while drinking wine. The next chapter Ellis titles The Silence. In this chapter Ellis addresses the period of silence on the topic of slavery. Ellis gives the reader history on slavery and how the topic was dealt with through debates during the creation of the Constitutional Convention. Ellis explains “Granted, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had engaged in extensive debates about the slave trade and how to count slaves for the purposes of representation and taxation. But these debates had all occurred behind closed doors and under the strictest code of confidentiality” (83-84). The debates were major but the men still had to keep control and keep the problem discussed only behind closed doors. Throughout this chapter, Ellis expresses three main point of views on the topic. Benjarmin Franklin wanted to avoid any problems and just ignore the problem. James Madison also wanted to prevent

This chapter begins with discussing George Washington’s presidency and things that he did. Next the chapter goes into The Farewell address that was written with help from Alexander Hamilton when he decided to retire from old age. In the farewell Address Washington leaves advice for the nation to stay strong. Chapter five The Collaborators is about the journey of the election between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The last chapter is titled The Friendship and it discusses the friendship that came about between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. With every page read from Founding Brothers something new about America’s history can be learned. Ellis does it in a way that can keep interest of people. He does not just give dates and times with events, he explains events in history as if he was sitting with someone telling the events of his life and what he experienced. Ellis does not keep his chapters in chronological order he just explaining events that happened. This grasps and keeps a person’s