{"product_id":"the-great-contradiction-the-tragic-side-of-the-american-founding","title":"The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJOSEPH J. ELLIS is the author of many works of American history, including \n\u003ci\u003eFounding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation\u003c\/i\u003e, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and \n\u003ci\u003eAmerican Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, \u003c\/i\u003e which won the National Book Award. He lives on Hawk Mountain, in Plymouth County, with his wife and two labradoodles\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"How did the founders manage to lose all sight of their revolutionary ideals when it came to African and Native Americans? 'Prejudice, avarice, and pusillanimity' was the assessment of one 1782 idealist, a formula Joseph J. Ellis unpacks here with his trademark clarity. Cutting through mist and myth, Ellis probes--on eighteenth-century rather than twenty-first-century terms--the questions that reduced thinkers like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson to blithering incoherence. An elegant, concise volume that illuminates the obfuscations, misunderstandings, and hypocrisy that continue to sabotage us today.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Stacy Schiff, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Revolutionary: Samuel Adams\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Joseph J. Ellis has given us a necessary corrective to any would-be triumphant narratives of America's founding. Fluidly written and cogently argued, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Great Contradiction\u003c\/i\u003e puts the failures to abolish slavery and to avoid Indian removal at the heart of the country's creation story--failures that have shaped us to this day.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Annette Gordon-Reed, author of \u003ci\u003eOn Juneteenth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"The American Revolution is often encrusted with the barnacles of sentimentality and nostalgia; we see only what we want to see. Joseph Ellis has masterfully widened our lens to tell a deeper, more complex, more accurate story of our founding. The great figures and ideals are still there, but now they are accompanied by the stories of those left out of the prize of liberty and freedom.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Ken Burns, award-winning filmmaker\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Deals honestly with America's original sins without slandering the country or diminishing its other glories . . . History remains much too complex to divide into narrative or political sides. It is, however, possible to divide the subject into partisans of good and bad writing. So if you are going to take a side, join Mr. Ellis's.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Nicholas Clairmont, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A] concise but well-sourced and lucid account. . . . In a work that is both clear-eyed and sympathetic, Ellis . . . thoughtfully fulfills his mission. In doing so, he enables us to see, and perhaps identify with, America's founders in their full humanity. Despite all their undeniable achievements, the legacies of these leaders must be weighed against their inability to rise above their circumstances and do what they knew to be right.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Harvey Freedenberg, Book Reporter\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An outstanding read. . . . An excellent book worth reading by anyone interested in early American history.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Richard Weigel, \u003ci\u003eBowling Green Daily News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[Readers] are apt to come away with a new appreciation of the limits on even our most powerful historical leaders' ability to shape events even in their own day, let alone in ours.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Kevin R. C. Gutzman, \u003ci\u003eLaw \u0026amp; Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"The distinguished historian examines America's two original, foundational sins. . . . A provocative, revisionist view of the first years of the Republic.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Incisive. . . . A robustly complex portrait of the imperfect but dedicated shepherds of the first modern republic.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"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.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"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, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Great Contradiction\u003c\/i\u003e can help us better understand what we are celebrating--and at whose expense.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Roger Bishop, \u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBrief Description\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA major new history from our most trusted voice on the Revolutionary era, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003ci\u003eFounding Brothers\u003c\/i\u003e and the National Book Award winner \u003ci\u003eAmerican Sphinx\u003c\/i\u003e, and featured in THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, on PBS. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Masterfully widen[s] our lens to tell a deeper, more complex, more accurate story of our founding.\" --Ken Burns\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOn 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? \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith 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. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEllis 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/span\u003e 08\/22\/2025 pg. 10 (EAN 9780593801413, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 08\/01\/2025 (EAN 9780593801413, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 08\/04\/2025 (EAN 9780593801413, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 09\/01\/2025 (EAN 9780593801413, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/span\u003e 10\/31\/2025 (EAN 9780593801413, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496023687446,"sku":"9780593801413","price":37.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780593801413.jpg?v=1783050850","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-great-contradiction-the-tragic-side-of-the-american-founding","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}