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Wit & Wisdom of the Founding Fathers: Ben Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson
George Washington laughing? That the venerable Father of Our Country, the austere and unfailingly honest leader of historical record and legend, had a penchant for tall tales and crafty quips seems unthinkable to most Americans, even today. In The Wit & Wisdom of the Founding Fathers, historian and scholar Paul Zall shatters the sober image of American icons George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to reveal - and celebrate - their natural bent for incisive, spirited humor.
With ample quotes from personal correspondence and private memoirs, Zall peers behind the staid and serious facade of our first three presidents and demonstrates how each strove to suppress his sense of mirth to maintain a dignified public reputation. By lifting the curtain on our Founding Fathers as they engage in practical jokes and regale friends with humorous stories, Zall opens a window on their personalities otherwise obscured by our preconceptions of them as larger-than-life historical figures. While Franklin's humor and wisdom is legendary thanks to his authorship of Poor Richard's Almanac, readers will be surprised to learn that Washington had a penchant for biting sarcasm; that Adams engaged in direct, colloquial, even vulgar, humor; and that Jefferson, our most cerebral president, enjoyed laughing at the absurdity of his own situation as leader of the nation.
With ample quotes from personal correspondence and private memoirs, Zall peers behind the staid and serious facade of our first three presidents and demonstrates how each strove to suppress his sense of mirth to maintain a dignified public reputation. By lifting the curtain on our Founding Fathers as they engage in practical jokes and regale friends with humorous stories, Zall opens a window on their personalities otherwise obscured by our preconceptions of them as larger-than-life historical figures. While Franklin's humor and wisdom is legendary thanks to his authorship of Poor Richard's Almanac, readers will be surprised to learn that Washington had a penchant for biting sarcasm; that Adams engaged in direct, colloquial, even vulgar, humor; and that Jefferson, our most cerebral president, enjoyed laughing at the absurdity of his own situation as leader of the nation.
171 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 19, 2015
Benjamin Franklin:
"Scandal, like other Virtues, is in part its own Reward, as it gives the Satisfaction of making our selves appear better than others, or others no better than ourselves".
"Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they began to parley".
"There's more old Drunkards than old Doctors".
"Scandal, like other Virtues, is in part its own Reward, as it gives the Satisfaction of making our selves appear better than others, or others no better than ourselves".
"Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they began to parley".
"There's more old Drunkards than old Doctors".
Displaying 1 of 1 review