After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture [Paperback]

Joseph J. Ellis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393952002 | ISBN-13: 978-0393952001 | Publication Date: June 1981

Through portraits of four figures—Charles Willson Peale, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, William Dunlap, and Noah Webster—Joseph Ellis provides a unique perspective on the role of culture in post-Revolutionary America, both its high expectations and its frustrations.

Each life is fascinating in its own right, and each is used to brightly illuminate the historical context.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph J. Ellis is Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College and author of the National Book Award-winning American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers, and Passionate Sage. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc (June 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393952002
• ISBN-13: 978-0393952001
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,505,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph J. Ellis is Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke and author of the National Book Award-winning American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers, and The Passionate Sage (Norton).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but......, July 9, 2008

By 

K. Lowe (Memphis, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture (Paperback)

This book was published in 1979, so Mr. Ellis doesn't have the same writing style as he does in "His Excellency" and "American Sphinx." If you can get past the tortuous Preface (or better yet, skip it) and the two boring and uninteresting introductory chapters, the four individual chapters highlighting Charles Willson Peale, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Wiliam Dunlap and Noah Webster are very interesting. In reading these four mini-biographies, I have plans to read "Modern Chivalry" by Brackenridge and the works of Charles Brockden Brown, a close friend of Dunlap's.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Written and Researched but Incomplete, May 7, 2010

By 

David Kopec (Hanover, NH United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture (Paperback)

Contrary to a previous reviewer, I do feel the preface and early chapters have value. Ellis is attempting to tell a unified story regarding the expectations for American cultural greatness, the roots of these expectations, and the reasons for their lack of flourishing immediately following the revolution. The early chapters and preface provide a context for that story, which plays itself out through the lives of the four individuals recounted in the in the latter part of the book.

These short biographies do complementarily tell this grand story well, but Ellis falls short by not wrapping up the volume with an examination of the common and uncommon characteristics of the four personalities that are detailed. Ellis's superb command of the English language is nearly as present here as it is in his later much lauded works. i did at times feel I was missing important information from the life stories that shaped the ideas of the four studied individuals but this is a reflection of the structure that Ellis chose. It is impossible to get too into the details of any one individual's life in a volume that is using these individuals as supporting evidence for a grander narrative without boring the reader or straying far from the central subject matter.

All in all this is a valuable read - especially for those well acquainted with the triumphs of the founding generation, but not as much its failures and the more minor characters behind the scenes.