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Tags: founding fathers

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  John Adams

  by David G. McCullough

  In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot -- "the colossus of independence," as Thomas Jefferson called him -- who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second President of the United States and saved the country from blundering... (more)
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  1776

  by David G. McCullough

  In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based on extensive... (more)
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  Founding Brothers

  The Revolutionary Generation

  by Joseph J. Ellis

  In this landmark work of history, the National Book Award—winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals–Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison–confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation. The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790. During the decade that followed,... (more)
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  Benjamin Franklin

  An American Life

  by Walter Isaacson

  Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin's life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Isaacson chronicles the... (more)
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  The 5000 Year Leap

  The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World

  by W. Cleon Skousen

  The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World. For many years in the United States there has been a gradual drifting away from the Founding Fathers original success formula. This has resulted in some of their most unique contributions for a free and prosperous society becoming lost or misunderstood. Therefore, there has been a need to review the history and development of the making of America in order to... (more)
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  Alexander Hamilton

  by Ron Chernow

  From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation. Ron Chernow, whom the New York Times called "as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we've seen in decades," now brings to startling life the man who was arguably the most important figure in American history, who never... (more)
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  His Excellency

  George Washington

  by Joseph J. Ellis

  The author of seven highly acclaimed books, Joseph J. Ellis has crafted a landmark biography that brings to life in all his complexity the most important and perhaps least understood figure in American history, George Washington. With his careful attention to detail and his lyrical prose, Ellis has set a new standard for biography. Drawing from the newly catalogued Washington papers at the University of... (more)
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  The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

  by Benjamin Franklin

  "The first book to belong permanently to literature. It created a man." -- From the Introduction Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and... (more)
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  John, Paul, George & Ben

  by Lane Smith

  Once there were four lads . . . John (Hancock) , Paul (Revere) , George (Washington) , and Ben (Franklin) . Oh yes, there was also Tom (Jefferson) , but he was always off doing his own thing, so people usually forgot about him. The lads were always getting into trouble for one reason or another. Johns handwriting was bigger than all the other kids. Pauls ear-splitting job as a bell-ringer made him speak a LITTLE... (more)
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  The Federalist Papers

  Hamilton, Madison, Jay

  by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

  The documents that shaped a nation. Three of the founding fathers brilliantly defend their revolutionary charter: the Constitution of the United States, a milestone in political science and a classic of American history.
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  The First American

  The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

  by H. W. Brands

  He was the foremost American of his day, yet today he is little more than a mythic caricature in the public imagination. Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the pivotal figure in colonial and revolutionary America, comes vividly to life in this masterly biography. Wit, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, businessman, inventor, and bon vivant, Benjamin Franklin was in every respect America’s first Renaissance man. From... (more)
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  American Gospel

  God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation

  by Jon Meacham

  The American Gospel–literally, the good news about America–is that religion shapes our public life without controlling it. In this vivid book, New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham tells the human story of how the Founding Fathers viewed faith, and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice. At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, American Gospel draws... (more)
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  Narratives of Empire series: Book 1

  Burr

  by Gore Vidal

  Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to the post-World War II years. With their broad canvas and large cast of fictional and historical characters, the novels in this series present a panorama of the American political and imperial experience as interpreted by one of its most worldly, knowing, and ironic observers. Burr is a portrait of perhaps the... (more)
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  First Family

  Abigail and John Adams

  by Joseph J. Ellis

  The Pulitzer Prize–winning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years. John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in their personal correspondence: both Adamses were... (more)
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  American Creation

  Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic

  by Joseph J. Ellis

  From the prizewinning author of the best-selling Founding Brothers and American Sphinx , a masterly and highly ironic examination of the founding years of our country. The last quarter of the eighteenth century remains the most politically creative era in American history, when a dedicated and determined group of men undertook a bold experiment in political ideals. It was a time of triumphs; yet, as Joseph J.... (more)
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  The Overton Window

  A Thriller

  by Glenn Beck

  A plan to destroy America, a hundred years in the making, is about to be unleashed . . . can it be stopped?There is a powerful technique called the Overton Window that can shape our lives, our laws, and our future. It works by manipulating public perception so that ideas previously thought of as radical begin to seem acceptable over time. Move the Window and you change the debate. Change the debate and... (more)
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  America's Hidden History

  Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

  by Kenneth C. Davis

  Kenneth C. Davis, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller Don't Know Much About History , presents a collection of extraordinary stories, each detailing an overlooked episode that shaped the nation's destiny and character. Davis's dramatic narratives set the record straight, busting myths and bringing to light little-known but fascinating facts from a time when the nation's fate hung in the balance. ... (more)
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  The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates

  by Ralph Ketcham

  The dissenting opinions of Patrick Henry and others who saw the Constitution as a threat to our hard-won rights and liberties. Edited and introduced by Ralph Ketcham.
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  Inventing a Nation

  Washington, Adams, Jefferson

  by Gore Vidal

  A New York Times bestseller One of the master stylists of American literature, Gore Vidal now provides us with his uniquely irreverent take on America’s founding fathers, bringing them to life at key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. “Pure Vidal. . . . Inventing a Nation is his edgy tribute to the way we were before the fall.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “<Vidal offers> details that... (more)
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  Washington

  A Life

  by Ron Chernow

  From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of George Washington.