The Founding Fathers Reconsidered

"Read Bernstein's book if you can. It's both a reminder of how fallible the Founding Fathers were--and yet how good they still look to us nearly a quarter of a millennium later." -- Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic"The Founding Fathers Reconsidered brims with insights and revelations, and the jargon-free prose is a genuine pleasure to read." --Journal of American History"Prolific historian Bernstein (adjunct, New York Law Sch.) follows up the brief biography Thomas Jefferson with another accessible work of popular history on a weighty topic... Recommended for general readers seeking an introduction to the legacies, political careers, and disparate roles of these men in the creation and early leadership of a new nation."--Library Journal"A logical and easily read examination of the history that made the Founders, the history they made, and what history has made of their handiwork."--Kansas Free Press"Unsurpassed in his knowledge of the vast literature on the subject, Bernstein is admirably suited to the task. He is also an efficient retailer, having packed a great deal of informed exposition and wise commentary into a small, compact book of just over 250 pages."--New England Quarterly"Bernstein's erudite and marvelously accessible take on the Founding Fathers is a gem. With masterful economy, wit, insight, and expertise, he makes a familiar story come newly alive in his portraits of the men who made the American Revolution and the early republic. This book should be on the shelf of anyone interested in America's founding era."--Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family and Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy"Even in the wake of innumerable learned commentaries on the subject, Bernstein manages to shed new light on the work of the men who framed the Constitution... The brief sketches of the various framers are likewise masterful and, Bernstein's focus on how th