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Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence

Joseph J. Ellis

3.89 · Rating details · 3,143 ratings · 409 reviews

A distinctive portrait of the crescendo moment in American history from the Pulitzer-winning American historian, Joseph Ellis.

The summer months of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in the story of our country’s founding. While the thirteen colonies came together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were dispatching the largest armada ever t ...more

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ebook, 240 pages

Published June 4th 2013 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2013)

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· 3,143 ratings · 409 reviews

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Oct 20, 2016 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really enjoyed Revolutionary Summer by Joseph J. Ellis. I've read quite a few books and biographies of the American Revolution time period and this is one of my favorites.

The best thing about Revolutionary Summer to me is its brevity. It focuses on the eventful summer of 1776 and the political and military hurdles overcome by the Americans. While it is brief this is a gem of a book.

On the political side, John Adams comes out as the unsung hero in this story because he was the civilian workho ...more

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Aug 03, 2013 John Vibber rated it it was amazing

What a scene! Revolutionary Summer takes you to the months of 1776 that have shaped our destiny and inspired all subsequent republics. The largest invasion fleet in history is sailing into New York City. General George Washington is frantically searching for a strategy that might allow his army to survive the onslaught. The Continental Congress is considering whether or not to unify as States in unique new country. Meanwhile, men and women in each colony are deciding whether they are British or ...more

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Jan 27, 2014 Travis Blanchard rated it it was amazing

There are some reviewers of this book who have stated that Joseph Ellis is retreading old ground here, but I am not sure what they are referring to. The fact that the book covers the American Revolution is similar to Ellis’s other work, but the similarities end there.

Revolutionary Summer covers the time period from about May-October 1776, with Ellis examining the period through his usual method, which involves a political and military lens with a balanced blend of macro- and micro-history, expan There are some reviewers of this book who have stated that Joseph Ellis is retreading old ground here, but I am not sure what they are referring to. The fact that the book covers the American Revolution is similar to Ellis’s other work, but the similarities end there.

Revolutionary Summer covers the time period from about May-October 1776, with Ellis examining the period through his usual method, which involves a political and military lens with a balanced blend of macro- and micro-history, expanding on key people and moments in order to draw conclusions and broaden our understanding of the event as a whole. It is a remarkably succinct analysis, the thesis being that by the fall of 1776, the British could not win the war for political reasons (the unexpected obstinacy of the Continental Congress chief among them) and the Americans could not win the war for military reasons (because the new states, stuck in a mindset of regional loyalties and suspicious of a standing army, refused to supply enough men and money to the Continental Army, keeping them “on the verge of dissolution.”)

The postscript provides an outstanding insight into British national feelings about the war even before its conclusion. The loss of her American colonies shattered the tenuous illusion of unquestioned British superiority, a blow many Britons tried their best to forget. Likewise, Americans attempted to sweep the necessity of the Continental Army under the rug, preferring to believe that the war was won by militia alone and that the republic was born out of “Immaculate Conception,” free from the perceived evils of a standing army. This willful amnesia by both sides is a fascinating aspect of the conflict, one I wish to see expanded upon in another work.

Ellis has always been a master at taking an event which we think cannot be fruitfully analyzed any further and making us look at it in another way, exposing an unexpected angle which allows us a glimpse of new layers of complexity. Revolutionary Summer is proof that there is always more to learn than we thought possible. ...more

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Feb 02, 2019 Donald Powell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, government

A detailed explanation and analysis of roughly May to October, 1776. Ellis dives into the events to explain the sentiments of the Americans, the British, the military players and the principal politicians on both sides. This level of detail illuminates much of how and why the revolution started and prevailed, in a way a wider view leaves unexplained. Mr. Ellis writes with clarity, insight and comparison of known facts to make his point. Any student of American History should read this short but ...more

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Aug 01, 2013 Jeff rated it liked it

I am often in the fence about the history of Joseph Ellis. He is an excellent writer, he anticipates some previous knowledge from his readers, and thus never simplifies the subject matter.

In this book Ellis tightens the microscope of his preferred subject, the Revolutionary period, and devotes his entire subject matter to 1776. Telling dual histories we follow the Continental Congress as well as General Washington as he awaits the British Invasion of New York.

The decisions of England's Howe br ...more

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Feb 03, 2015 Aric Cushing added it

Gripping from beginning to end. Howe's attack on Kip's Bay:

Washington's midnight escape across the Hudson (and Howe's brilliant undocumented response):

Oh yes, and our brilliant retreat, first to Harlem Heights, then to White Plains:

If you're a history buff, don't miss this one.

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Aug 11, 2017 Wayland Smith rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017reading-challenge

There's a lot that most people don't know about the Revolutionary War. One of the things that never really gets taught in basic history courses is how close the American side came to losing, several times. This book, focusing on the summer and early fall of 1776, shows the early days of the war, and the reasons behind many of the difficulties faced by the Continental Army.

George Washington is rightly remembered as a hero of American history. What isn't really known is the story behind several o ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Brian Willis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I will always recommend Ellis for those who want to brush up - or learn - basic American revolutionary era history and personas without having to read hundreds of pages to arrive there.

Like Ellis's previous work, this focuses tightly on certain ideas, and while just over 200 pages, does so in such a brief space with a lot of insight and depth. This time, Ellis covers the timespan of May-October 1776, and his focus is Philadelphia and Washington, the first a city and the second the man. While the ...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Jerome rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A good but somewhat superficial study of the summer of 1776 and the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence. Ellis writes very well. Ellis is good at providing portraits of the major figures like John Adams, but I felt he profiled too few of them.

Still, his portrait of General Howe was good. The Howe brothers had insisted on being named as peace commissioners, with wide-ranging powers to grant pardons and offer concessions. They had also, as members of Parliament, opposed many of th

A good but somewhat superficial study of the summer of 1776 and the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence. Ellis writes very well. Ellis is good at providing portraits of the major figures like John Adams, but I felt he profiled too few of them.

Still, his portrait of General Howe was good. The Howe brothers had insisted on being named as peace commissioners, with wide-ranging powers to grant pardons and offer concessions. They had also, as members of Parliament, opposed many of the more unpopular laws imposed on the colonists. Americans love our historical adversaries to be right out of a movie script: "evil tyrant", "brutal arrogant general", etc. George Washington was certainly not a skilled general and repeatedly found himself bested by Howe. But it is strange how many times Howe failed to follow up his victories and allowed Washington to retreat with his army mostly intact. Washington won only two battles out of eight in the entire war, and spent much of his time retreating, and was rash and over-aggressive. His decision to defend New York against the vastly superior British army nearly lost the war. Washington's offensive plans were overly complicated. Washington was often more concerned about his own reputation than he was about the survival and welfare of his men. When retreats were called, he delegated this responsibility to subordinates, again to protect his reputation.

Interestingly, one of the reasons the Continental Army was able to keep going was due to their own false propaganda. American newspapers never mentioned the defeat at Brooklyn; some even described it as a victory. "Loyalty to 'The Cause', " Ellis writes, "trumped all the conventional definitions of the truth so completely that journalistic integrity became almost treasonable."

Also, similar to what happens in America today, whenever Britain's commanders suffered failure, the public looked for someone in the army or the government to blame. The Continental Congress was not any better in terms of harmony; they knew what they were against, but not what they were for.

Many of the Continental Army's soldiers were idealists, upholding romantic notions of their moral supremacy and the righteousness of their cause: the so-called "Spirit of '76." Washington himself was too much of a realist to embrace this attitude. He had little confidence in his troops or in his own ability to lead them to victory. The spirit of '76 was dying even before the Declaration of Independence came around. As the Declaration itself was passed, the Continental Army was on the verge of annihilation.

Continental Army soldiers were, of course, "citizen-soldiers", a romantic way of saying amateurs. In our own popular imagination, the army was a legion of selfless heroes. In fact, most of them were amateurs, and more loyal to their states than to the "nation"; mainly because service in the state militia paid better than the Continental Army. Many recruits enlisted in one regiment and then re-enlisted in others for an extra helping of bounty money. Recruiting proved difficult; the majority of the colonists wanted nothing to do with the conflict. In most towns, revolutionaries created vigilante groups to intimidate loyalists and force the locals to swear loyalty oaths.

"The idealistic, quasi-religious political mentality suggested by elevated expressions like 'The Cause' and moralistic references to the superiority of American virtue as contrasted with British corruption, " Ellis writes, "had provided a rhetorical platform on which the different and disparate state and regional interests could congregate as a self-proclaimed collective...The exalted and almost operatic character of this mentality was heartfelt but unsustainable. It was the honeymoon phase of a marriage, blissfully romantic but of short duration."

We usually picture the signing of the Declaration of Independence as a single event that took place on July 4, 1776. In reality, the document was presented to Congress on June 28, Congress voted on July 2, and afterwards Congress spent a few days editing what was basically a press release. The document was not ready for publication until July 4, and the actual "signing" took months (John Hancock signed on August 2, and the others followed suit in the tiny space that was left). For some reason, Jefferson claimed that there was a signing ceremony on July 4.

Ellis, unlike other historians of this period, also deals with the question of slavery. The revolutionaries claimed to stand for government by consent, a principle rooted in colonial society and history but blatantly contradicted by slavery: 20% of the colonial population were blacks, and 90% of these were slaves. One of the grievances listed in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence accused George III of inciting slave insurrections. ...more

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Jul 24, 2013 Erica rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, famous-figures, history, leadership, non-fiction, uk, war-stories

You know, it never hurts to brush up on history. I had begun to worry that I didn't understand the American Revolution and was mixing facts, making stuff up.
No, it turns out, I'm good. I know the basics: the flow of events, the major players, even some of the cities involved. I'm not as knowledgeable as I'd like to be but am probably good enough to be a standard American.
I know that because most of what I listened to, I actually remembered learning in Ms. Morrison's American History class and al You know, it never hurts to brush up on history. I had begun to worry that I didn't understand the American Revolution and was mixing facts, making stuff up.
No, it turns out, I'm good. I know the basics: the flow of events, the major players, even some of the cities involved. I'm not as knowledgeable as I'd like to be but am probably good enough to be a standard American.
I know that because most of what I listened to, I actually remembered learning in Ms. Morrison's American History class and all the major things have been retained in my haphazard memory, so - yay!

Here's what I liked about this book: It's written in narrative format so it's not as dry and boring as a typical history text. I know, it's sad I have to have things told as a story in order for them to stick but it's not just me. A lot of people are like that. I'm not going to apologize.

Here's what I didn't like: It started going on and on and became as boring as a typical history text. I loved the letters between John and Abigail Adams. I loved Ben Franklin's snotty academic attitude. But then the fighting started after 1776 and I had no idea why I was being told half the things I was told or why I cared about Howe's "trial" in England. I mean, sure, it's a good way to wrap everything up but...one minute, Washington is not sure what he's going to do or how he's going to keep the army alive and the next minute, the war is...well, not-won - the book often mentions the not-winning America did, how it just survived longer than Britain and, therefore, they lost - and Howe has to give a debriefing to his peers, some of whom back him and some don't and THE END.
Yes, it just ended like that. I thought I must have fast-forwarded, skipping an entire section, but no. Trial. End.

So I don't really feel I learned anything but I'd still recommend this to anyone who wants to brush up on the events that happened between the Boston Tea Party (the massacre isn't really mentioned) and September 1776.
Also? This book left me wanting to learn more about Abigail Adams. I'm not sure how she flew under my radar all this time; this book makes her sound fairly kick-ass. ...more

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Jan 17, 2014 Hannah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-reads, historicals, non-fiction

Rating Clarification 3.5 Stars

Ellis' narrative primarily focuses on the political and military agenda and perspective of both colonial American (Adams, Franklin, Washington, Greene) and British (Germain, Richard Howe, William Howe, Clinton) players during the crucial months leading up to the Declaration of Independence through the successful retreat of Washington's army from New York city; a "summer" period loosely covering June - October of 1776. The decisions made (or not made) from both sides ...more

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Jun 11, 2013 Robert Melnyk rated it really liked it

Very good account of the early part of the American Revolution. Very similar to David McCullough's 1776. So much history that took place just a few miles from where I have lived all my life. It is very interesting to consider what would have happened if William Howe had decided to attack Washington in northern Manhattan. He could have destroyed the Continental Army, and essentially ended the Revolution at its beginning. How would history have changed? Very good read for American history buffs, a ...more

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Aug 13, 2017 megs_bookrack rated it really liked it

Revolutionary Summer is a concise telling of the events of the summer of 1776. The writing style is smooth and a lot of information is packed into such a small book. I really enjoyed it - Ellis shapes the individuals vividly and provides you with some insight into each of the key players, both British and American. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading about American History.

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Mar 14, 2018 Bill Christman rated it really liked it

Another of Ellis' fine pieces of history. He set out to show the interplay of the Battle of New York and the Congressional movement to independence. Usually these stories for ease of narrative are told separately but Ellis is trying to have the reader experience a bit of the chaos and show neither the political nor military decisions were made in a vacuum. Ellis going through and tell the British side, especially the military and the Howe brothers, solidifies the work and his basic theme. Recomm ...more

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Sep 07, 2018 Marie rated it really liked it

This is one of the shortest non-fiction history books I have read. Focused solely on 1776. It was an interesting read. Now I want to read another George Washington biography — so interesting!

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Jun 13, 2018 John Machata rated it really liked it

Excellent well-written history of this momentous time.

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Jun 22, 2013 Jay Connor rated it it was amazing

Joseph J. Ellis, who deservedly won the Pulitzer for his great “Founding Brothers,” equally deserves that accolade for this excellent “Revolutionary Summer.”

Ellis has done with a crucial moment in our Revolution Story, what Jay Winik did with our Civil War Story to such successful impact in “April 1865.” Each author took a laser focus on a moment in time that was not only a turning point in our collective history but also the convergence point of so many threads and personalities of the underlyi Joseph J. Ellis, who deservedly won the Pulitzer for his great “Founding Brothers,” equally deserves that accolade for this excellent “Revolutionary Summer.”

Ellis has done with a crucial moment in our Revolution Story, what Jay Winik did with our Civil War Story to such successful impact in “April 1865.” Each author took a laser focus on a moment in time that was not only a turning point in our collective history but also the convergence point of so many threads and personalities of the underlying complex narrative. Unlike nearly all of our recent historical chronicles of the Revolutionary period, including Ellis’ own work, that tend to tell the story in biographical relief or in chronological survey of either political or military points of view, here Ellis weaves together how each personality across the political and military stage influenced the thoughts and actions of the other. Further, he masterfully unveils standards and norms of the period, like character and honor, which have so drifted from our contemporary consciousness that without this lens many decisions, particularly on the battlefield, become inexplicable.

Perhaps most fascinating is the insight into the two brothers, British Admiral Richard Howe and General William Howe, who, if they had acted differently, if they had less desire to sue for peace with their “unruly brethren,” could almost have certainly crushed the Revolution in its crib. But then again, what is most intriguing of this weaving of the political and the military stories is perhaps that given the politicians commitment to Independence in this summer of 1776, the whole affair had transcended a mere military consequence. A meeting between Continental Congress representatives, Adams and Franklin, with Admiral Howe in early fall 1776 after the overwhelming US defeat at New York, speaks profoundly of this unwavering belief that Independence was inevitable and the military campaigns were simply a barometer of when.

Ellis saves his best work in underscoring this perception of inevitability while simultaneously indirectly giving profound insight into the foolishness of America’s wars of the last 50 years – Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. In all three, we were the British in an unwinnable war by failing to remember what our founding fathers knew intuitively. Ellis recounts how Adams grew in assurance of this inevitability by his reading of Greek and Roman military histories (imagine a contemporary politician doing likewise). He saw America as the same as the winning ancient underdogs: Thebes against Sparta in the Peloponnesian War or Rome against Carthage in the Punic Wars. “For like Hannibal, Howe would discover that winning battles was not synonymous with winning wars. Conquests were easily made because we achieve them with our full force; they are retained with difficulty because we defend them with only a part of our forces.” Thus, the greater Howe’s victories, the greater were his difficulties. For Adams understood, and history retells for any insurrection on a foreign land, Howe was destined to win his way to defeat. “The British had to win the war, but the American’s had only not to lose it.”

For any student of American history, “Revolutionary Summer” is a must read!
...more

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Jul 31, 2013 George P. rated it it was amazing

Joseph J. Ellis, Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence (New York: Alred A. Knopf, 2013). $26.95, 240 pages. Hardcover / Kindle

Although the American Revolution can be viewed from many perspectives, history books typically emphasize the political and military ones, and for good reason. The Revolution was a bid for political independence that needed to be secured by force of arms. Revolutionary Summer is the latest history book aimed at a popular readership that tells the story Joseph J. Ellis, Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence (New York: Alred A. Knopf, 2013). $26.95, 240 pages. Hardcover / Kindle

Although the American Revolution can be viewed from many perspectives, history books typically emphasize the political and military ones, and for good reason. The Revolution was a bid for political independence that needed to be secured by force of arms. Revolutionary Summer is the latest history book aimed at a popular readership that tells the story of how political and military concerns interacted from May through October 1776.

During those months, the American colonies—heretofore divided among patriot, moderate, and loyalist factions—coalesced toward independence, coalescence helped along by the British invasion of New York. From a military perspective, the British missed several opportunities to destroy Washington’s Continental Army in New York, misses that were harshly criticized after the war. At the time, however, British military leaders were hesitant to take decisive moves lest they further politically alienate the American colonists.

The colonists faced the opposite problem. Politics were their strength, but the military was their weakness. The Continental Army was chronically underfunded, undersupplied, and made up of militias that were more committed to their states than to the newly declared United States. It would win the war by not losing it. And what kind of union did these states have anyway? A confederation? A union?

Joseph J. Ellis narrates the history of these crucial months, and the answers to these questions, with his typically graceful prose. I read Revolutionary Summer after reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill, which focuses on the rise and progress of the revolution in Boston in 1775. Both books are excellent examples of how history can be written for a broad readership. And they are useful reminders that, far from a foregone conclusion, the success of the American Revolution was a close-run thing.

P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page. ...more

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Dec 26, 2013 Grady McCallie rated it liked it · review of another edition

A segment of the American reading public seems to have created a bottomless market for semi-scholarly narrative histories -- written for a popular audience but with rigorous sourcing and citations -- of the American Revolution. Revolutionary Summer is the latest entry, covering the period May 1776 through October 1776: the Continental Congress and George Washington's doomed defense of the city of New York. In his preface, Ellis claims that these two strands, political and military, have rarely b A segment of the American reading public seems to have created a bottomless market for semi-scholarly narrative histories -- written for a popular audience but with rigorous sourcing and citations -- of the American Revolution. Revolutionary Summer is the latest entry, covering the period May 1776 through October 1776: the Continental Congress and George Washington's doomed defense of the city of New York. In his preface, Ellis claims that these two strands, political and military, have rarely been told as an entwined narrative. At 187 pages of text, this is a quick read, and if the strands are knitted together here, they're both relatively thin. The main takeaways from the book are that: the British commanders, the Howe brothers, wanted a diplomatic solution, and missed multiple chances to bottle up and destroy the fledgling Continental Army; the Continental Congress, once it declared independence in July, supported the army wholeheartedly but lacked the political power to make that support logistically meaningful; and George Washington had slowly to learn the lesson that, never mind his personal honor, his chief task was to prevent the Continental Army from being pinned down and defeated by superior British troops.

One aspect of the book makes it feel workmanlike rather than inspired. Throughout the book, random phrases or sentences are unnecessarily awkward: "Both the Continental Congress and the Continental Army were still provisional improvisations..." (40) - either word would suffice. Or: "...at the moment, political control rested with the more actively involved local leaders and citizens. And if their words are to be believed, their conversion and subsequent commitment to 'The Cause" was a choice literally forced on them by the nonnegotiable policies of George III and that approaching flotilla of redcoats and foreign mercenaries." (54) - "a choice literally" is, literally, unnecessary. None of the infelicities confuse the meaning, but they do make the prose bumpy. In an afterword, Ellis dedicates the book to the memory of his longtime editor, who passed away 'just as [Ellis] was finishing the manuscript'; the writing may reflect that loss. ...more

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Jun 25, 2013 Jim Coughenour rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american_history

A couple weeks ago I started reading 1775: A Good Year for Revolution by Kevin Phillips but was defeated, as I was in 2000 by The Cousins’ Wars, by the bog of historical detail. Phillips is rarely less than interesting but his research is exhausting.

Joseph J. Ellis, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian of revolutionary America, praised Phillips in his New York Times review despite the “rambling character of the middle chapters”:

This is a feisty, fearless, edgy book, blissfully bereft of academic

...more

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Oct 08, 2013 Bob Price rated it liked it

There comes a point in a person's publishing career where they have probably put into print virtually everything they have learned and they begin to cover ground they have already covered.

I think that is the case with Revolutionary Summer, Joseph Ellis' latest offering of Early American History.

I liked the fact that Ellis focused on the summer of 1776, albeit a slightly extended summer. In this, Ellis seems to want to counter Kevin Phillips notion in 1775 that independence had begun a year earl ...more

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Nov 01, 2016 Yerzhan Karatay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: the-usa, favorites

Joseph J. Ellis described both the political and military atmosphere of 1776 in a well-written manner.
I highly enjoyed to find Washington as hesitant as honour driven character he was, though, being able to take the right decisions and manage own fears for the sake of The Cause when just The Cause wasn't actually sufficient for young, inexperienced militia to confront the glorious British forces led by William Howe.

The plot behind the war covers the Revolution in different scales, e.g. why Thom ...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Daniel rated it really liked it

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this week, I found it slightly disappointing in that Ellis seems here to skim over some of the important events of the summer of 1776 to highlight, what he believes to be, the salient points. The book is, to be sure, a wonderful read. And he clearly makes his case about the importance of that particular "revolutionary" summer to the survival of the cause of American independence. In many ways, the eventual American victory was born in the way George Washington manag ...more

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May 20, 2016 Pete rated it really liked it

this got me from roughly columbus to somewhere in tennessee today. totally valid if slightly softbatch narration of how independence was being declaration-ed at the same exact time as the battles for new york almost annihilated the continental army. ellis is really good on recovering intentionality from historical personalities (his take on the role of honor in washington's command choices was neat). nothing groundbreaking or magical but very solid crispy US narrative history if that is your bag ...more

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Jun 05, 2013 Barbara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, founding-fathers-american-revolutio, non-fiction, us-history

I enjoyed this book, and felt like Mr. Ellis gives the reader a good feel for what many of the generals and founding fathers may have been thinking and what some of their motivation might have been as they were making important decisions that impacted the future of the American Revolution.
I do wish it had covered a longer period of time. This is a fascinating period in history, and, personally, it amazes me the many events that seem providential, almost miraculous.

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Dec 24, 2015 Robert rated it really liked it

The high level of historical quality and thought you come to expect from a Joseph Ellis book is here. Ellis takes one year (even less than that when you count the months) and explains why the political and military decisions of both sides were so intertwined it set the stage for the rest of the Revolutionary War.

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Jul 28, 2013 Bruno rated it really liked it

Classic Ellis - well-researched, well-written, enormously entertaining in places. It was not his best work - for some reason it seemed not as tightly edited with events and conversations being repeated almost verbatim in different chapters. But - having said that - Ellis is like pizza. Even bad pizza is better than most anything else.

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Oct 02, 2013 Mary rated it really liked it

Excellent overview of the major political and military challenges of the summer of 1776. It has been a while since I've read much about this and it was a nice review. I imagine anyone who has read much about this historical period would find this a bit too lightweight, but I enjoyed it.

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Oct 14, 2016 Fredrick Danysh rated it liked it

Shelves: history, american-revolution

Ellis examines some of the political events, both in the American colonies and England, that led up to the American Revolution. He then discusses military actions and political decisions that occurred in 1776. Revolutionary Summer presents a different viewpoint of the war.

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Aug 16, 2014 Jackie rated it it was amazing

An excellent account of the summer of 1776, as our nation struggled to free itself. Surprisingly to me, during that summer, the Continental Army was not brave, George Washington was not decisive and the Continental Congress was not united. This is a story of how it all came together.

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About Joseph J. Ellis

Joseph J. Ellis

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Joseph J. Ellis, a professor of history at Mount Holyoke College, is a nationally recognized scholar of American history from colonial times through the early decades of the Republic. The author of seven books, he is recipient of the National Book Award in Nonfiction for American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson and the Pulitzer Prize for Founding Brothers. He lives in Massachusetts.

Books by Joseph J. Ellis

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic

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“If you knew how the journey was going to end, you could afford to be patient along the path.” — 3 likes

“Washington not only fit the bill physically, he was also almost perfect psychologically, so comfortable with his superiority that he felt no need to explain himself. (As a young man during the French and Indian war he had been more outspoken, but he learned from experience to allow his sheer presence to speak for itself.) While less confident men blathered on, he remained silent, thereby making himself a vessel into which admirers for their fondest convictions, becoming a kind of receptacle for diverse aspirations that magically came together in one man.” — 2 likes

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