The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding
Biographical Note: JOSEPH J. ELLIS is the author of many works of American history, including Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which...
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Biographical Note: "This compelling history emphasizes aspects of the time that are not often illuminated and draws on rarely cited sources. . . . [An] insightful, noteworthy, and fresh history of the nation's founding." --Booklist (starred review) "As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, this volume offers an important and necessary perspective on the fight for American independence. . . . By examining the writing and revisions of the documents establishing this nation and their impact on enslavement and the Indigenous population, readers gain a perspective into a more nuanced version of U.S. history than what is usually taught." --Library Journal (starred review) "Ellis wisely advises us to deal with realities and not mythology, writing frankly and forcefully. . . . Ellis is one of our country's great historians. His books on early American history are national treasures. As the semiquincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approaches, The Great Contradiction can help us better understand what we are celebrating--and at whose expense." --Roger Bishop, BookPage (starred review) Brief Description: "A major new history from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers and the National Book Award winner American Sphinx, on how America's founders--Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams--regarded the issue of slavery as they drafted the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. In this daring and important work, our most trusted voice on the founding era reckons with the realities and regrets of our founding and the tragedy of its two great failures: the failure to end slavery and the failure to avoid Indian removal"-- Provided by publisher. Publisher Marketing: A major new history from our most trusted voice on the Revolutionary era, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers and the National Book Award winner American Sphinx, and featured in THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, on PBS. An astounding look at how America's founders--Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Adams--regarded the issue of slavery as they drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A daring and important work that ultimately reckons with the two great failures of America's founding: the failure to end slavery and the failure to avoid Indian removal. "Masterfully widen[s] our lens to tell a deeper, more complex, more accurate story of our founding." --Ken Burns On the eve of the American Revolution, half a million enslaved African Americans were embedded in the North American population. The slave trade was flourishing, even as the thirteen colonies armed themselves to defend against the idea of being governed without consent. This paradox gave birth to what one of our most admired historians, Joseph J. Ellis, calls the "great contradiction" How could a government that had been justified and founded on the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence institutionalize slavery? How could it permit a tidal wave of western migration by settlers who understood the phrase "pursuit of happiness" to mean the pursuit of Indian lands? With narrative grace and a flair for irony and paradox, Ellis addresses the questions that lie at America's twisted roots--questions that turned even the sharpest minds of the Revolutionary generation into mental contortionists. He discusses the first debates around slavery and the treatment of Native Americans, from the Constitutional Convention to the Treaty of New York, revealing the thinking and rationalizations behind Jay, Hamilton, and Madison's revisions of the Articles of Confederation, and highlights the key role of figures like Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet and Creek chief Alexander McGillivray. Ellis writes with candor and deftness, his clarion voice rising above presentist historians and partisans who are eager to make the founders into trophies in the ongoing culture wars. Instead, Ellis tells a story that is rooted in the coexistence of grandeur and failure, brilliance and blindness, grace and sin. Review Citations:
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The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding
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