Customer Reviews:
 Sweet Sounds of Irony June 5, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The real triumph of Professor Ellis's new work is the close examination of key moments from the Nation's founding period in such a neat, succinct book.
While much of the material has been repackaged from other works, especially the prologue about the evolving process of the American Revolution, (see Gordon Wood's Revolutionary Characters, Jay Winik's The Great Upheaval among many others) other segments are more nuanced. The section about Valley Forge and its profound effect in shaping Washington's vision for a strong federal government and his support of an improbable Constitution is insightful. Additionally, the author provides compelling explanations for Madison's shift from staunch Federalist to resolute Republican. Another highlight is the section on the Louisiana Purchase in which Ellis reconciles Jefferson's grossly unconstitutional act of executive authority and his seemingly incompatible notions about a weak federal government.
In fact, a more accurate subtitle for this book might be Ironies of the Early American Republic. The triumph and tragedy theme seems forced and reminiscent of an unsuccessful bid for victory in the high school History Fair. Ellis focuses on Indian policy and slavery as the tragic acts of the Founders. While the Louisiana Purchase clearly established American economic dominance, but perpetuated slavery and Indian persecution, it is less useful to analyze the other events discussed in the book in terms of triumph and tragedy. In fact, Ellis's analogy about executive authority might well be applied to his adherence to the book's theme "it could expand or contract like an accordion, making the music required in different historical contexts." Although I do not usually appreciate the accordion, this book was enjoyable.
 The Continuing American Revolution June 5, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Together with the Civil War, the American Revolution continues to exert a great fascination for Americans. The historian Joseph Ellis has written many books making this period of our history accessible to lay readers. His most recent work "American Creation" is, in its scholarship and its lucidity, a thoughtful study of the founding of our nation.
The founding of the United States, for Ellis, occured in the 28-year period from 1775, with the shots fired at Lexington and Concord, and continued through the Louisiana purchase of 1803. But in a deeper sense, the process set in motion in these years continues to this day as Americans struggle and debate among themselves to understand, realize, and develop the government bequeathed by the Founders. Ellis argues that the American Revolution was unique in that it was a conservative, evolutionary process that resulted from a fortuitous combination of time, the Enlightenment era, and space, the large, apparently inexhaustible land mass of North America located far from the European powers. The evolutionary character of the Revolution, for Ellis, was the source of its stability and accomplishments, but it was also the source of its severe shortcomings in the perpetuation of slavery and in the treatment of Native Americans.
Ellis rejects the extremes in which the American Revolution has all-too-often been viewed. On one hand, he rejects viewing the Founders as iconic, larger-than-life figures somehow without the passions, weaknesses and blindnesses of ordinary mortals. On the other hand, Ellis also rejects a post-modernistic, highly critical assessment of the Founders which sees them as dead white males bound to their elite economic class and caring nothing for the rights of slaves, Indians, or women. For Ellis, the Revolution was the fortunate result of coincidence, opportunity, and genuine talent. The Founders, in their evolutionary approach to Revolution, improvised and temporized. They were remarkably successful, but at a price.
Ellis offers a narrative, story-like account of the American Revolution, a form that has been much-criticized by academic historians adopting an interest-based approach to historical writing. The four individuals Ellis considers to be most instrumental in bringing about the American Revolution are George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. He portrays these characters well throughout his narrative, with attention to their virtues, shortcomings, and idiosyncracies.
Ellis develops his theme through six chapters, each of which is short enought to be readable and detailed enough to avoid superficiality. The thread of the narrative -- the evolutionary nature of the American Revolution -- is sustained through each chapter with attention to the uniqueness of the individual historical events he describes.
Ellis discusses the beginnings of the war for independence which culminated in Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in 1776. He gives great weight to the writings of John Adams as well as to the famous "self-evident" truths Jefferson proclaimed which ultimately became the basis of the American vision. In the second chapter, Ellis describes the winter at Valley Forge and how it helped create both a military strategy and the basis of a nation. Ellis describes the Constitutional Convention and the ambiguities created in our founding document, with special attention to the role of James Madison and to Madison's debates with Patrick Henry in the Ratification Convention in Virginia. Chapter four considers early attempts during the Washington Administration to devise a humane Indian policy. Ellis reflects on how the structure of Federalism established by the Constitution helped to cause these attempts to fail. In chapter 5, Ellis discusses the beginnings of the two-party system in Jefferson's criticisms of Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists. Jefferson is roughly treated in Ellis's account. The final chapter describes Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which rested uneasily with Jefferson's own professed principles of limited government. This purchase was a climactic event, doubling the size of the United States, and irrevocably establishing the power of the national government. But it also laid the basis for the extension of slavery and for the Civil War.
In the opening chapter of this book, Ellis summarizes the accomplishments of the Revolutionary generation as including 1. a successful war for independence; 2. establishing a nation-size republic; 3.creating a secular state; 4. creating a government with divided sovereignties 5. creating political parties and providing a forum for organized dissent. The ambiguities and compromises of the Founders created a system that is fluid by its nature and that continues to be developed and argued about by subsequent generations.
Without minimizing the tragedies of the Revolutionary generation, Ellis explains well the origins of the American system of government and why it has been able to survive and develop. Ellis has written an excellent book which will help its readers understand their past and think creatively about their future.
Robin Friedman
Worth another Pulitzer June 1, 2008
"American Creation" is a welcome continuation of "Founding Brothers" So if you enjoyed the latter, you will savor the former. "Creation" carries the same formula and extends from the Continental Congress to the Louisiana Purchase with emphasis on the handling of the problem of slavery and American Indian relations. Jefferson features prominently and some readers will find a bit of familiar ground previously introduced in "American Sphinx."
The great thing about Ellis' writing, in addition to his beautiful turns of phrase, is is his ability to get into the minds of the participants through thorough documentation and research and draw his conclusions thereby.
Highly recommended
Analysis of Founders May 26, 2008
Joseph J. Ellis is one of the best historians and authors of about the revolutionary period. Ellis uses his knowledge and his opinions to take a closer look at several events of the revolutionary period.
Ellis disects several events of the revolution. Background knowledge is necessary to get the most out of this book. The analysis is outstanding and Ellis gives great insights. This is a very good book to read to get a deeper understanding of the reasoning of the American Creation.
 A bit, or more than a bit, thin -- and a few other issues May 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First, I can't say it better than another three-star reviewer who said Ellis was becoming a Consumer's Digest historian.
Take the slavery issue. Yes, Jefferson was a hypocrite, and yes, he deliberately pulled away from the fire during the Missouri Compromise process, but Ellis has nothing in between this time and the Louisiana Purchase about Jefferson's stance. Or Madison's, for that matter.
Another thing. If Jefferson and Adams are two of your four "featured Founders," why no discussion of their voluminous correspondence after the end of Jefferson's presidency?
Why the stinting on Adams in general, which makes the book read like it's about 3.5 Founders, not 4?
And, given that Hamilton is shown here is more than a foil, but a bete noir, for both Jefferson and Madison, why is he not included as a "fifth Founder"?
That said, without being "PC," Ellis does do a good job of removing Founders, especially Jefferson, probably the most overrated president in our country's history, from their pedestals. And, on things like the Founders' dealings with both slavery and American Indians, he may have percolated a desire in some readers to read more in depth in these areas.
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