4th Of July: Best Books About America's Founding Fathers

Yes, we know the 4th of July is more about fireworks and picnics than the Revolutionary War, but we are, after all, celebrating American Independence. So if you have the time and inclination for something heavier than the usual summer read, grab one of these. And if you want to see who in your family can name the most founding fathers, the complete list is here.

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"Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation" by Cokie Roberts

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A bestseller when it came out, you can't talk about the fathers without talking about the mothers.

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A bestseller when it came out, you can't talk about the fathers without talking about the mothers.

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rcwhite364 said on 4 Monday 2011 pm31 4:05 pm: You know literally nothing about American history. The Founders were a collection of many faiths, including agnostic and atheist. I suggest one place to start is the Treaty of Tripoli (1796), signed and passed into law by the Senate while John Adams was President (the actual Founder, not JQAdams, as your hero Michelle Bachman wants you to believe). Key is Article 11: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." And try reading Jefferson and his comments about the wall of separation between church and state. Your reference to the treatment of the Japanese during WWII is abhorrent, and nativist movements in the US, most recently against undocumented immigrants, have been a constant reminder of just how unchristianly the country is.

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Comments

[Paula Bryder]

11:23 AM on 07/21/2011

No Joseph Ellis? American Sphinx? American Creation? Founding Brothers?

[c-tom]

12:50 PM on 07/05/2011

Henry Adam's history of the Jefferson and Madison administrations is invaluable to those interested in the founding fathers.

[Chaucerian1400]

11:19 AM on 07/05/2011

Paul Revere's Ride and Washington's Crossing — Both by David Hackett Fisher. These books are works of popular history by a noted historian (Harvard and Oxford professor), and they read like novels. I cannot recommend them too highly.

[didereaux]

11:35 PM on 07/04/2011

and yet the brilliant compilers of this list failed miserably! They do not list '55 Men, Story of Constitution' by fred Rodell. Probably the very best book on the men who wrote and signed the Constitution. Many of whom were the most significant contributers to the founding of this nation.

If you have never read the book, get it. New or used it is widely available, you cannot understand this nations inception without reading this book.

[Woods-shade]

09:05 AM on 07/05/2011

Much appreciated! No, I did not know of it - I'll look it up today. : )

[Lev Raphael]

11:16 PM on 07/04/2011

Nothing by Joseph Ellis? Hmmmm......

[John David Redux]

11:31 PM on 07/04/2011

Maybe because he was caught in a bald-faced lie about his so-called "Vietnam experiences."

[Paros]

10:56 PM on 07/04/2011

Off topic (in a way) but from a history book I picked up tonight:

"What overloaded the government was war costs, both current upkeep of armies and the burden of public debt which was due almost totally to the war costs of the past. .... Yet the debt could not be carried, for the simple reason that the budget did not balance. Taxes and other revenues fell short of necessary expenditures. This in turn was not due to national poverty, but to the tax exemptions and tax evasions of privileged elements, especially the nobles. The church too insisted that its property was not taxable by the state. Thus, although the country itself was prosperous, the government treasury was empty. The social classes which enjoyed most of the wealth of the country did not pay taxes corresponding to their income, and, even worse, they resisted taxation as degrading.

Written about the 21st century US? No, about the causes of the French revolution of 1789 in Palmer and Colton's "A History of the Modern World" (1950).

Thought you might find this of interest. Why is it that we study history? Something about history repeating itself....

[Annieke]

02:47 AM on 07/05/2011

Indeed.

And keep in mind that both Revolutions in Russia and France occurred when the gap between the wealthy and the poor was getting bigger and bigger. In percentages, the gap was smaller in both Russia and France than the gap is in the US as we speak.

[pottedferne]

10:35 PM on 07/04/2011

Got some great suggestions from almost everybody .........thanks and good night.....

[Paros]

11:00 PM on 07/04/2011

Hey read my post just above this one of yours.
I think it might interest you.

I guess I have to move your Fan year to 1962! LOL

[SparkyDash]

09:52 PM on 07/04/2011

Anything by David McCullough.

His excellent biographies of Truman and John Adams were so detailed the reader knew when each man blew his respective nose, I swear.

[Woods-shade]

09:07 AM on 07/05/2011

Highest respect for McCullough. Wish he had delved into Thomas Paine.

[Paros]

09:46 PM on 07/04/2011

I felt so out of touch when I arrived at college and began studying American government but seemed to be the only one not schooled in The Federalist Papers. A few years later, in the early 80s, when I went to work in DC and the Federalist Society was all the buzz people often quoted them by chapter and verse much the way southern fundamentalist christians do the bible. And later still when I met my late husband he never went anywhere without a copy. He had paperback issues stashed in drawers and glovebox - never to be far from a copy.

But tonight I will begin McCullough's "John Adams". I'll put it on my list to watch the HBO series on Adams before Labor Day comes around.

[pottedferne]

10:24 PM on 07/04/2011

You will not regret it. I got the series for my husband for Christmas and watched every segment but he hasn't yet.

[Paros]

10:57 PM on 07/04/2011

That's funny - so is your moniker and I love the year of your fans :D

[3fingerbrown]

09:00 PM on 07/04/2011

Suggested additions:

Gore Vidal's "Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson" -- entertaining, idiosyncratic, and irreverent. Vidal unearths gems I've encountered in no other popular history, such as this thought from George III about his former colonists: "Knavery seems to be so much the striking feature of its inhabitants that it may not in the end be an evil that they become aliens to this kingdoms." It might have been one of the few things John Adams and the king would agree on. Vidal reminds us that Adams described Americans with words like "rascality, venality, corruption." No wonder that Adams preferred a republic to a democracy.

Scott Liell's "46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the Turning Point to Independence" -- Not a biography of Paine, but a biography of his most famous pamphlet and its influence on events. Even after years of being mourned by historians as the "forgotten founder," Paine's role in the Revolution is still not fully appreciated. Liell's little book is an excellent introduction to Paine for the general reader.

Paine's fellow media superstar, Ben Franklin, could never be called forgotten: Hundreds of Franklin bios have been published. Of the recent ones, HW Brands's "The First American" might be the best.

I'm still waiting for a great book about Sam Adams. I understand that the deism of certain founders is sexier to academic historians than S. Adams's dour brand of puritanism, but his role in history shouldn't be marginalized just because he wasn't much fun at parties.

[Paros]

09:47 PM on 07/04/2011

Liell's "46 Pages" is unfamiliar to me but strikes an interest.
Thanks for the suggestion.

[pottedferne]

10:26 PM on 07/04/2011

me too.

[ufopp]

06:12 PM on 07/04/2011

And thanks to Sarah Palin, we don't have to read about Paul Revere anymore.

[marlb0r0]

08:56 PM on 07/04/2011

"The Americans are Coming, The Americans are Coming"

[pigstick]

05:33 PM on 07/04/2011

The seperation of church and state, according to Thomas Jefferson, was that the state would not interfere with the affairs of the church and vise versa. Not seperation of religious expression from public office or the town square as the left would have us think.
Light em up and have a great 4th and God bless America.

[marlb0r0]

09:04 PM on 07/04/2011

B.S. TREATY OF TRIPOLI >

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,"

Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof. And to the End that the said Treaty may be observed, and performed with good Faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public; And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military within the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observe and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof.

- submitted to the Senate by President John Adams, receiving ratification unanimously from the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797

god-LESS America!
Happy 4th!

[Paros]

09:50 PM on 07/04/2011

As a deist mascarading as an Episcopalian, he seems to have seen his most beloved achievement as a protection for himself against those who might brand him a heretic. His rewrite of the Gospels must not have been widely distributed.

[Edward Standley]

05:32 PM on 07/04/2011

David McCullough has become a favorite. "John Adams" is very good, and would also recommend his "Path Between The Seas" on the building of the Panama Canal.

[fatback65]

05:45 PM on 07/04/2011

Just finished Truman. Also great.

[michaelws]

09:25 PM on 07/04/2011

just starting Truman.

[kathye]

05:20 PM on 07/04/2011

You have to read "Revolutionaries" by Jack Rakove. You will not be able to put it down, and the material he has uncovered puts the acts of these Founding Fathers and the historic place they found themselves in into a new light. Do we have men today who can face the odds in what looked like and impossible endeavor.

[pottedferne]

06:18 PM on 07/04/2011

only if the "funding corporations" tell them too.

[cmbg78]

05:17 PM on 07/04/2011

Where are all the John Quincy Adams books?

[kathye]

05:39 PM on 07/04/2011

Michelle Bachman bought them all for home schooling.

[Paros]

09:51 PM on 07/04/2011

clever!