1776

I particularly like the period of the Constitutional convention of 1787.  Catherine Bowen's book Miracle at Philadelpia is a good readable history on that more reasoned season of national direction.  I had my pocket copy of the Constitution out on Saturday to reread Article II.  Those Founding Fathers said nothing about special permission for presidential authorization of wiretaps or anything close. 

TW

Agree with you... I was hoping to get more of the book in terms of the political manouvers that led to 1776.. This book dealt only with 1776, their battles and nothing else... I did not like the fact that there was not a central character (which is understandable, but still). Did not like the fact the author jumped from one character to the next... the inclusion of maps would have been very helpfull too...

I just finish Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson...   A great book, a great man, a great story and great history...

1. I'd like to read that after I get my hands on a pre-revolutionary history (events leading up to and including 1775)
2. That's because the Founding Fathers were extreme left wing, free-thinking liberals. They'd never get elected today.

Not only that, but they believed that we had inalienable rights. Not rights that the government deemed fit to give us, but rights that we were born with, rights the government had no business stripping us of.

Fringe Founding Fathers, that's what they were. Rush Limbaugh would eviscerate Jefferson,  Paine, Adams et al, no doubt. O'Reilly would spit on them.

Think so? Is he that much of a reactionary?

Would make for good tv spectacle, which is all these guys care about. Theatre!

Some people have rights and freedom in the US, others less so. Anyone care to wager whether those whose emails and phone calls were tapped illegally were Christian or Muslim or other.

TW

Wait...  you mean they are tapping illegally people based on religion?....  and all this time I thought the US was a secular country....  

Happy Christmas   holidays...

And that would be hmm racial profiling.  People just love it when they do that.  Talk about a way to win the hearts and minds. 

TW

Stu,

Great reading list.  I haven't read any of those.  I just added a couple to my Amazon wish list.

TW

Stupidnickname:

Bingo! Those are the books I was looking for. Ideological origins, internal political histories. I'll probably make my way through 5 of the 6 books you recommended.

Thanks!

Historical novels - those are the ones where they take real people and events and fictionalize it? I'd rather read the real stuff, so much more interesting.

I finished reading 1776 last night after midnight then went to bed. Not a good idea. Too much death and destruction on my mind. I have an overactive imagination and war is such a depressing topic, especially when you are given excrutiating details. Kinda' bummed today.

Founding Brothers is excellent.

I also highly recommend John Adams, also by David McCullough. He was the first VPOTUS and second POTUS and cousin to Samuel Adams the great agitator for revolution. This is the man to read about to get a feel for the politics of the time. He was politically pivotal while militarily almost insignificant to the founding of the US.

And a heckuva brewmaster too! Gotta love Sammy

I have a Polish friend who knows more about our founding history than I do (I'm embarassed to admit). She is a big fan of John & Abigail Adams.

Actually he wasn't at all successful as a brewer.  He ran his fathers' malt house for a time but had no real desire to do it for a living and ran the place into the ground.

Renee if at some point in your reading, you'd like to fast forward a hundred years, then I would like to recommend you read, The Death of Reconstruction; Race, Labor , and Politics in the post Civil War North. 1865-1901.

I had read it several years ago and being home, a little under the weather, I decided to read parts of it again. Gives tremendous insight into race and politicals issues that haunt us today.

Oh, and can you believe it was written by a WOMAN.

isbn 0-674-00637-2