Customer Reviews

Forgotten Founder: The Life and Times of Charles Pinckney

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Charles Pinckney hardly deserves the accolade "founding father". Save his participation at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention in 1787 there is little else about his life that qualifies him as a founding father. No wonder he has been forgotten. Marty Matthews has done a stellar job in researching and annotating this biography. His writing style is clear, straight forward, and easy to read. However, the conclusions he reaches about Charles Pinckney seem contrary to Matthew's own statements. Even during his lifetime, Pinckney's reputation was denigrated for good reasons.

Matthews spends a lot of time trying to explain why Pinckney deserves to be remembered as an important factor in the development of the U.S. Constitution. But, ultimatley, he is not convincing simply because Pinckney's contributions were minimal. This is not to say that Pinckney was not extremely influential in South Carolina politics. He was. In fact Pinckney espoused ideas and concepts that were used by succeeding generations of South Carolinians to develop the ideology that led to succession by the state. The author's propensity to overlook or try to explain away most of Pinckneys' shortcomings does not diminish his scholarly research into Charles Pinckney

Marty presents a fair and unbiased look at one of America'a forgotten heros. Pinckney is one of the creators of this nation, yet he is left in the shadows of Jefferson, Washington and Franklin. Please take the time to read this landmark book!