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Feb 09, 2011

AC rated it:

Everything Joseph Ellis writes is worth reading, and this book is no exception. Having said that, this wasn't his best to date - Founding Brothers was; however, another fine showing. Ellis' book examines a number of events in the founding years of the United States in chapters that could each stand alone as essays. A selection of founding fathers are portrayed, complete with a warts and flaws, as they deal with various problems including waging a "war" of independence by avoiding an More...

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Jul 28, 2008

Clinton rated it:

I read this to fill in a few of the considerable gaps in my knowledge of American history. I found Ellis readable and entertaining, especially his chapters on the Continental Army at Valley Forge and the Louisiana Purchase.

His portraits of Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Washington are compelling and complex.

Ellis sets out to present the founding generation as neither saints nor villains. He shows how the founding was the product of some brilliant individuals but al More...

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Jan 03, 2009

Lgb rated it:

This book fills in a lot of gaps in the story of the creation of the United States. It describes the coming together of some of the most brilliant political minds ever assembled, and how they struggled with their republican values and the practical demands of the time. For example, Washington is forced to choose between feeding his starving army at Valley Forge by stealing food from local farmers, or respecting property rights and loosing the army which he needs to win freedom from Britain.
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Dec 14, 2011

***Dave rated it:

(Original review: http://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2008/04/29/...)

Overall: Good
Writing: Good
Info: Good
Re-Listenability: Good
Audio: Good

Writing: The subtitle of the book is “Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic,” and Ellis sticks with that theme as he reviews various episodes in the early US — from the Revolutionary War to Louisiana Purchase — to recount unexpected triumphs that made the US an unexpectedly viable republic, and the unquestionab More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Mycroft rated it:

Ellis talks about wanting to address the dichotomy between views of the 'Founding Fathers' as ideologically pure saints on the one side, and racist, sexist, trivial little men who failed to address problems that should have been apparent to them on the other. He achieves this beautifully in a reader friendly style. As someone who has been alienated by the 'sainthood' view, Ellis raised my opinion of the founding leaders showing them to be pragmatic, hardworking lot who made compromises on issues More...

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May 13, 2010

Richard rated it:

This one was alright as far as bland history books go. Lots of good info delving deeper than the normal public school history lesson does. But the author has a deep slant towards the federalists. Seems odd since it is politics of over 200 years ago, but he paints a very negative picture of the early republicans.

The book is overly bland, but it is filled with opinions on top of the facts. So, it feels like a history book, but in reality it is also a political commentary on the e More...

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Sep 18, 2009

Steven rated it:

Joseph Ellis has already authored a number of very well received books on early American history: Founding Brothers, American Sphinx (focusing on Thomas Jefferson), and His Excellency (about George Washington). This book is yet another very nice contribution to our understanding of the period from the Declaration of Independence through the early 19th Century. The subtitle, perhaps, says a great detail about the content of this book: "Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic." More...

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Jun 29, 2009

Brian rated it:

I found this book to be very educational and a quick read. So much gets glossed over in our education on the founding fathers, and you develop these unrealistic images of them. Its more fascinating to read about what they were really like and how things actually went down. I gained a much greater appreciation of the dilema of how to balance state power vs. federal power, especially when you're trying to overthrow a monarchy but you need to organize a united army. I never realized how close w More...

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Apr 14, 2009

Marcus rated it:

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic by Joseph J. Ellis

Joseph Ellis is fast becoming one of the leading history writers for mainstream America. I do not say this to belittle his work, but rather to praise it. Ellis is able to take the events and turn them into a comprehensive story. The purpose of this selection is to tell the story of the formative years of the American Republic. Each chapter discusses a specific event in American history. He then More...

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Apr 07, 2011

Nathan rated it:

A quick but dense little book; a lot of questions raised, not so many answered. Ellis justifies this less-than-exhaustive study by offering the prefatory disclaimer that the founding era of America, and the foremost figures of that era, were far more complicated than history generally gives them credit for. While the breadth of that statement makes it hard to argue with, it also makes the study rather bootless and unremarkable.

Ellis does give a portrait of early America remarkable f More...

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Dec 02, 2010

Don rated it:

Without a doubt one of the finest works i have ever read books on American history. I have read a lot.This book spends it time in the crucial phases of the developmental of out system of government from it's first days to past Monroe.
These men we giants and I doubt that there are few living in our political system that would even come close to what these men took on without spin-misters, corrupt media and days false adds.
Jeopardy Answer: John Adams. The question WHO was referred to More...

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Feb 03, 2010

Chris rated it:

This was a first rate civics lesson. Ellis leads us through a pretty scholarly look at the motivations of those involved in the creation of the American republic from 1775 to 1803. He takes a careful look at the contradictions that arose as a result of the press for "justice and liberty for all". The tragedy spoken of in the title is the fact that American Indians and slaves were left as outsiders to this process. This was a difficult and ugly truth for many of the great men responsibl More...

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Jul 04, 2010

Dustin rated it:

This book not only increased my knowledge about how the US came about, I also found it quite applicable to our current political environment. There are so many commonly held beliefs about the Constitution floating around that on closer examination can only be characterized as misconceptions. The idea, for instance, that the founding fathers were a collection of like minded individuals who all agreed that government was bad... Instead, the main idea I came away with is that by comprimising, th More...

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Reviewers embraced American Creation for the same reason they enjoyed Ellis's previous books: his treatment of the Founding Fathers is neither idolatrous nor iconoclastic. He portrays them as the fascinating, complex, and human characters they really were. Some historians disagreed with details of Ellis's interpretation, but they tended to emphasize that, like the founders themselves, Ellis has created a useful framework in which the ideas of the Revolutionary period can be discussed. Ellis's pr

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Jan 04, 2009

Tom rated it:

This was an excellent book and a high quality audio CD. I was somewhat concerned when I saw this book was being read by the same reader as American Lion: A Biography of President Andrew Jackson, a less rewarding experience than I was hoping for. Fortunately, this was not the case.

For starters, this was an unabridged audio recording, so every word Ellis put down (including chapter headings) was read. For another, Ellis' style is smooth and moves chronologically. About the only ba More...

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Jan 12, 2012

R.L. rated it:

American history during the years 1775 to 1803. It's been a long time since I read a history book, but this one was interesting enough to make me want to read more.

The book is heavily footnoted. Some of the references point the way to some interesting-sounding books about this period of history:

A look at the Revolution from the British point-of-view
A biography of Alexander Hamilton
More about the Louisiana Purchase

A couple of things that I'll remember abou More...

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Dec 06, 2011

Christopher rated it:

This is a good book the titanic achievements and colossal failures of the founding fathers, specifically Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and John Adams. Other lesser-known founders, like Hamilton and Henry Knox, also make appearances in this book. Ellis focuses on 6 key events between the years of 1775 and 1803. Each one of these stories reveals their genius and their frail humanity. My only criticism is that it isn't very detailed. While certainly well written, there are times when you wish Ell More...

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Jun 21, 2011

Lili rated it:

I only really appreciated the section on the evolution of the Native American policy; mostly because I had never been exposed to any of that material, partly because I'm a sucker for foreign policy stories, and partly because I may be in love with Henry Knox.

Without a table of contents, I understood the book to be roughly divided into five sections: the war of Revolution, the great Constitutional debate, Native American policy, evolution of the two-party system, and the Louisiana pur More...

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Jan 31, 2009

Eunice rated it:

Fascinating and a joy to read, like Ellis's other books. Ellis's thesis is that the founding of the US, 1775 to 1803, was both triumph and tragedy. He develops this idea by means of separate stories, including the failed attempt by Henry Knox and George Washington, during the latter's presidency, to develop a truly just policy toward the native Americans east of the Mississippi that would have prevented their virtual extinction. The last chapter explores Jefferson's role in the Louisiana Purc More...

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Apr 07, 2008

Russ rated it:

Interesting tidbits about three areas of the early days of the Republic(Madison's thoughts on how the Constitution should be written, the handling of the "Indian" issue, and the Louisiana Purchase). Though well written the assembly of the subjects seemed kind of random. It's almost as if the author needed a few extra bucks so he threw this book together.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 15, 2009

Justin rated it:

Inserting everything that you probably should have studied in you early American History class, Ellis does an excellent job analyzing most of the major decisions and controversies in early American governance from the forming of the Continental Army through the Louisiana purchase. He alternates between analyzing events most students would be loosely familiar with (such as the debate over the constitution) and controversies likely less familiar or much discussed in class such as the early treatme More...

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Sep 22, 2009

Andy rated it:

great read. More thoughtful analysis than straight history. Interesting thesis, the founders deserve great credit for developing the foundation of a republic which had never been done on a large scale before, a foundation that has endured. However, Ellis makes compelling argument that the founders would concede that there were two failures to this success, the failure to address slavery which was completely inconsistent which the values of their republic and the failure to address treatment of N More...

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Apr 03, 2009

Bruce rated it:

To me, this provided a more "up close and personal" viewpoint of the thought processes, passions and contributions of several of the key "founding fathers" as opposed to my previous impressions and text book understanding. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Adams, George Washington are the primary players here. I read this in Sept. 2008, at the height of the 2008 Presidential race, which provided a very interesting perspective to me of modern American politic More...

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Sep 02, 2010

Joseph rated it:

This was an interesting book in a lot of ways. First I will talk about the good stuff. The writing was superb and it flowed very well within the capters and was just well done. The author really chose topics for each chapter and talked about how the founding fathers really dealt with them, etc. For a history buff there was some great behind the scene things that were interesting to know. That I enjoyed it very much.

The one thing that sort of bothered me was that each chapter kin More...

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Jan 11, 2009

Lorenzo rated it:

Not as engrossing as "Founding Brothers", also by Ellis, but a very readable and informative history of the young American republic. This one deals with the tension between those who favored a loose confederation of states (e.g., Jefferson & Madison) and those who wanted a strong central government (Hamilton & Adams). Ellis details the somewhat accidental creation of the first American political parties, and the attempts to deal with native Americans and slavery. Both "American Cr More...

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Nov 20, 2008

Kaitlyn rated it:

After the historic Obama win, I felt the need to read this book by one of my favorite American historians, Joseph Ellis. In his true page-turner fashion, he provides rich analysis and accounts of the great "republican experiment" that shifted the global paradigm of state vs. federal sovereignty, introduced the art of space-and-time guerilla warfare during the rebellion, failed to stop the demographic invasion of whites into Indian territory, gave rise to political parties that forever More...

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Nov 20, 2008

Meri rated it:

Joseph Ellis is a bit of a snob, but he's justified. His extensive knowledge of early U.S. History is on full display in this retelling of our country's inception. He provides the most mature interpretation of our founding that I've seen, not ignoring its obvious flaws (slavery and Native Americans, for anyone who hasn't been appropriately shamed), but neither concentrating solely on them. He paints the founders as intelligent men, sensitive to the enlightened rhetoric of their time, but hypo More...

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Aug 10, 2009

Lara rated it:

I think I've read every book by Joseph Ellis - each of his biographies of the founding fathers (Washington, Adams and Jefferson) and of course "Founding Brothers" which was excellent. "American Creation" was in the same vein of "Founding Brothers" - telling anecdotes about events during the Revolutionary War period and the first 25 years of the Republic. Ellis is very readable - not at all stuffy, which can be a danger given the subject matter. I liked this book' More...

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Jun 08, 2009

William Thomas rated it:

the clarity of the book helped to propel the narrative in this history of the founding of the United States. the lucidity and concision of the book account for part of the reason i liked the book, but only a small part. what was most enjoyable was the difference in vision and interpretation of the events of the founding- the book portraying neither the black-balled history nor the equally ludicrous white-washed side of things- and taking a stance clearly defined and marked by statement of fact a More...

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Oct 15, 2011

Val rated it:

Fantastic! The American Revolution brought to us by flawed individuals. Joseph Eliss details the triumphs, tragedies, successes and failures of the founding fathers. I "read" this book as an audio book and I was enthralled with each vignette as Ellis delved into the details of the Louisiana Purchase, the writing of our Declaration of Independence and the ratification of our constitution. How close we came to not being a Republic is made clear through the letters and speeches of our More...

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