Revolutionaries

A New History of the Invention of America

Jack Rakove

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780547521879
• eBook ISBN: 9780547486741
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: History

"[A] wide-ranging and nuanced group portrait of the Founding Fathers" by a Pulitzer Prize winner ( The New Yorker).
In the early 1770s, the men who invented America were living quiet, provincial lives in the rustic backwaters of the New World, devoted to family and the private pursuit of wealth and happiness. None set out to become "revolutionary." But when events in Boston escalated, they found themselves thrust into a crisis that moved quickly from protest to war.
In Revolutionaries, a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian shows how the private lives of these men were suddenly transformed into public careers—how Washington became a strategist, Franklin a pioneering cultural diplomat, Madison a sophisticated constitutional thinker, and Hamilton a brilliant policymaker.
From the Boston Tea Party to the First Continental Congress, from Trenton to Valley Forge, from the ratification of the Constitution to the disputes that led to our two-party system, Rakove explores the competing views of politics, war, diplomacy, and society that shaped our nation. We see the founders before they were fully formed leaders, as ordinary men who became extraordinary, altered by history.
"[An] eminently readable account of the men who led the Revolution, wrote the Constitution and persuaded the citizens of the thirteen original states to adopt it." — San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Superb . . . a distinctive, fresh retelling of this epochal tale . . . Men like John Dickinson, George Mason, and Henry and John Laurens, rarely leading characters in similar works, put in strong appearances here. But the focus is on the big five: Washington, Franklin, John Adams, Jefferson, and Hamilton. Everyone interested in the founding of the U.S. will want to read this book." — Publishers Weekly, starred review
 

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Act of Settlement (England, 1701), 40

Adams, Abigail

correspondence with John, 57, 64, 91, 119, 135, 185, 195, 244–45, 262, 264, 267–68, 274, 305, 320

Europe and, 294, 295, 320–21, 322, 332

Franklin and, 322–23

Jefferson and, 295, 321, 322, 332, 335

personality, 42, 185, 196, 262, 305

presidential mansion, 4–5

women’s rights and, 185, 196, 305

Adams, Charles, 194, 242

Adams, John

background/father, 41

balancing domestic/public affairs, 304

Boston Massacre soldiers, 43–44

Boston Tea Party/punishment, 44–45, 49

career indecision, 2–3, 41–42

contrasts with Jefferson, 304–5

correspondence with Abigail, 57, 64, 91, 119, 135, 185, 195, 244–45, 262, 264, 267–68, 274, 305, 320

death, 341

education, 1, 38, 41, 42

as European tourist, 279, 296

First Congress, 31–32

“happiness” concept, 300

hot-air balloons, 294

Jefferson and, 399

legal career, 2–3, 42, 43

meeting with William Howe, 105–6

personality/ambition, 16, 42, 43, 44, 49–51, 61, 76, 91, 102, 289

political beginnings, 44, 45–46

as president, 4–5

religion and, 2

as schoolteacher, 1–2, 38, 46

sharing bed with Franklin, 105–6

Stamp Act and, 3, 22, 159

summary on, 1–5

on timing of his life, 18, 303

trip to England, 294

vice presidency and, 393, 438

Adams, John/constitutions

“barons” of the south ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• The World Beyond Worcester
• The Crisis
• Advocates for the Cause
• The Revolt of the Moderates
• The Character of a General
• Challenges
• The First Constitution Makers
• Vain Liberators
• The Diplomats
• Legacies
• The Optimist Abroad
• The Greatest Lawgiver of Modernity
• The State Builder
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Sources and Further Reading
• Index
• About the Author
• Connect with HMH
• Footnotes