Summary
A series of studies of the men who came to be known as the Founding Fathers. Each life is considered in the round, but the thread that binds the work together is the idea of character as a lived reality for these men. For these were men, Wood shows, who took the matter of character very seriously. T... Full description
- Introduction: The founders and the Enlightenment
- The greatness of George Washington
- The invention of Benjamin Franklin
- The trials and tribulations of Thomas Jefferson
- Alexander Hamilton and the making of a fiscal-military state
- Is there a "James Madison problem"?
- The relevance and irrelevance of John Adams
- Thomas Paine, America's first public intellectual
- The real treason of Aaron Burr
- The founders and the creation of modern public opinion.