America's Founding Fathers: Their Uncommon Wisdom and Wit [Hardcover]

Bill Adler (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 2003

Together for the first time in one volume are the personal philosophies, opinions, thoughts, witticisms, and feelings of the exemplary men who founded our nation. This book gathers together the founding fathers' best quotations on a variety of subjects including life, love, marriage, family, children, religion, patriotism, sacrifice, law, professionalism, medicine, public health, education, money, "modern" society, the Revolutionary War, humor, and death. Those cited include Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, James Madison, George Washington, Samuel Adams, and Benjamin Rush. AMERICA'S FOUNDING FATHERS: Their Uncommon Wisdom and Wit delves into the political and philosophical principles of each founder, illuminating their individual motives, thoughts, and actions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The selections in this ill-digested compendium are a haphazardly mixed bag. Ben Franklin is showcased with worldly aphorisms and his arguments, some tongue in cheek, for the turkey and rattlesnake as national symbols. John Adams mutters some dyspeptic aphorisms. George Washington dispenses stolid endorsements of virtue and religion, including not one but two long-winded Thanksgiving proclamations. Nearly half the book is given over to Jefferson's musings on the wisdom of the people and the evils of unfettered government, while Madison weighs in on the madness of the people and Hamilton extols the benefits of unfettered government. Enlightenment firebrand Tom Paine imprecates organized religion, and the randomly included Benjamin Rush offers a dubious prescription of bleeding and purging as a cure for yellow fever. Careful readers can discern the currents of political thought in the early Republic through this hodge-podge, but they will get little help from the slipshod editing. The contents are only sporadically organized by theme, and not at all by date. Most passages have no citations to guide readers to sources. There are few notes, so puzzling references go unexplained, and some of the selections are repeated, sometimes on the very same page. The sections on Madison and Hamilton seem to have been indiscriminately xeroxed from the Federalist Papers and include stray truisms like Hamilton's reminder, apropos of nothing, that "In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend." Readers in search of wit and wisdom will have to wade through a lot of banality and boilerplate first.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Bill Adler has been a writer and literary agent for more than thirty years. Four of his books have been on The New York Times best-seller list, including The Kennedy Wit and Who Killed the Robins Family? Editor of The Quotable Giuliani: The Mayor of America in his own Words and America's First Ladies: Their Uncommon Wisdom, from Martha Washington to Laura Bush. He lives in New York City.

Bill Adler has been a writer and literary agent for more than thirty years. Four of his books have been on The New York Times best-seller list, including The Kennedy Wit and Who Killed the Robins Family? Editor of The Quotable Giuliani: The Mayor of America in his own Words and America's First Ladies: Their Uncommon Wisdom, from Martha Washington to Laura Bush. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (February 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878332847
• ISBN-13: 978-0878332847
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,901,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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