Customer Reviews

Founding Fathers: Brief Lives of the Framers of the United States Constitution

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The brief and deceptively simple nature of this book makes you wonder why so few collected biographies of the Framers exist. But a closer look answers the question. Mel Bradford actually undertook for himself a pretty mammoth task: not only to tell who the Framers were, where they came from and what they did, but more importantly to analyze what they individually believed and what they were trying to achieve in Philadelphia that fateful summer.

Discussions of the origins and drafting of the Constitution are all too frequently simplified to the point where we assume that everyone agreed on the basic issues involved, and gathered only to work out the details. In fact, as Bradford shows, that was hardly the case at all. The author did a magnificent job, in my opinion, sorting out the degrees and shades of political opinion across a much wider spectrum than, I think, is generally thought to have existed. From extreme nationalists like Hamilton, who would have abolished the separate states entirely if he could have, to the most ardent anti-federalists, Bradford has dug into the original sources, the journals, memoirs, and letters, and brought forward the evidence to support the portraits he has created.

To respond to the reviewer who suggested the point of Bradford's work was to prove the Framers were all Christians bent on establishing a Christian government: I have to wonder how closely that reviewer really read this book. Bradford of course discusses many of the Framers' religious beliefs. In some cases, this is a necessary part of understanding their philosophical roots. It's also an inescapable part of biography, since many of the men were in fact active supporters of one or another branch of the Christian faith. But the very core of Bradford's argument is that the Constitution is nomocratic, not teleocratic. In other words (and in marked contrast, again, to most modern understandings), most of the Framers were not trying to shape or create a *novus ordo seclorum* at all, but rather (and simply) to lay out the rules by which a federal government would operate. Society would be left free to shape itself. Whether that shape was Christian or otherwise was a matter for people, families, and communities, not the government. Some of the men at the Convention may have had other plans, but they were kept from realizing them by the moderate majority of delegates.

"Founding Fathers" is a short book, but there is an awful lot crammed into it. As a basic reference, I think it's an essential part of any shelf of books dedicated to America's founding. As an introduction to the larger philosophical issues with which the Founders were dealing, and the ways in which they tried to address them, it's a summary, and an invitation to further study, that's pretty hard to beat.

~Founding Fathers: Brief Lives of the Framers of the United States Constitution~ is a perennial classic and an excellent introduction to understanding the history of the early Republic and the men who framed the Constitution. The founding fathers featured herein, that is the framers of the 1787 Constitution, came from all walks of life. "One was a shoemaker, surveyor, lawyer, jurist, lay theologian, and statesmen. Two became president, one vice-president. Over half were experienced in the legal profession. The majority were well off and, for their time, well educated." They came together in Philadelphia and produced the most profound document in the history of the United States.

M.E. Bradford amplifies the length and scope of content of each mini-biography based in proportion to the respective founding father's contribution and influence. Some biographies are obviously limited in scope due to lack of available materials. The brevity of this book does not hamper its quality, as it is an excellent starting point for researching the founding fathers and the ones who are lesser known today, but monumental in their influence during the time such as Deleware statesmen John Dickinson, New Hampshires' John Langdon, New York's Gouverneur Morris and Virginia's George Wythe. The objectivity is to be commended, and Bradford gives the reader a good feel for the positions of each of the men and usually explains whether they were centralizing nationalists, moderate Federalists, or decentralizing Anti-Federalists. Each biography is annotated with a bibliographical list of source materials, which may be useful for probing deeper into each founding father's background. This book is well-written and offers great capsule biographies of the most influential men who helped frame the Constitution and shape it in the course of debates.

As for the other reviewer grumbling about Mel Bradford's making the American founding to be based on Christianity, I do not know where he gets that from. I think his criticism is unwarranted and I would point out that there is a flip side to the erroneousness of portraying ALL the founding fathers as devout Christians, which is his erroneous statement that "most were deists and freemasons." It is not however erroneous to say most were Christians, however popular the token deists among them were. Bradford did little more than sketch backgrounds on the founders; it just happens that Madison studied at seminary, Hamilton founded the short-lived Christian Constitutional Society, William Few was a devout Methodist, etc. That a few founders were deists, Jefferson foremost, possibly Franklin does not make the founders all secularists. Consider that the vitality of the Christian religion to the founding father's times compelled even the deist politicians to generally speak in Christian platitudes, and embrace public prayer. They typically speak in the rhetoric of Christian moralism, hence Jefferson's insistence on his being a "true Christian" and his extol of the morality of Christ. Franklin was no different. In the end, I am not a discerner of hearts, but I do know a great many of the founders made bold affirmations of their Christian faith.

The Founding Fathers, by the late Melvin Bradford, provides the reader with a most stunning and historically rich analysis on the otherwise unknown lives of the framers of the constitution. Men whose knowledge of history,philosophy, and law prepared a document for 13 colonies that was to have greater repercussions for the republic. A scholarly treatise of the first order, from one of the greats of American political thought.

This is a great book that offers a summary of The Founding Fathers of the United States. The book does not waste too much time with detail but provides a wonderful overview of their lives and offers a jumping off point to other books for in depth reading. I feel I have a much better understanding of what our fathers wanted for us and how far we have deviated from the path.

The late M.E. Bradford devoted the latter part of his life to publicizing the truth about the American political tradition, no matter what it cost him. It cost him quite a lot, usually at the hands of people who didn't know quite why they were hostile to him; the culture didn't have a spot for a forthrightly reactionary scholar. (One finds an illustration of this last fact in the title of the current volume. Bradford's first edition, published during his lifetime, was called _A Worthy Company_. This one, which came out about a year after he died, has a title that is contrary to the core of his teaching, which was that America is not an experiment, but a place with a culture dating back to the early 17th century. The men of the 1780s, then, were not "founders." Ah, well.) Such is life.

"Founding Fathers" is well written and well researched. Many thought provoking biographica sketches of the "Founding Fathers" from each of the 13 states. Not an easy rad due to the impact of the bios of each man, but well worth reading. Of interest was the lead roles played by the men who signed attended the Second Continental Congress, debated the Declaration of Independence, and now saw the need for a new form of government. Noteworthy also were those delegates who opposed the Constitution in its origin, yet returned home to help ratify the documment. Most surprising was the role played by James Wilson of Pennsylvania. Of course, James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Ben Franklin were important conference impact folk as you would expect.

I have the original title, In Worthy Company, and while I agree with the author that the Founders were indeed worthy and gave us a Republic that has endured, the book's premise, that the Founders were Christians and that, by default, what they wrought is based on Christianity and the Bible, is flawed

The Founders were men of all faiths, Deists, Freemasons, and free thinkers. They were children of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, well-versed in the classics, and fully aware that English Common Law was descended from Roman Law, Saxon Law, and the Danelaw, none of which were Bible or Christian based.

There is a growing revisionist movement that is trying to prove that the Constitution is Bible based, which is false, and this revisionism is flawed history, a type of 'make it up as you go' and this volume is, unfortunately, in that category. It is badly researched, not documented at all well, and some of it is blatantly inaccurate. The author's treatment of the War of the Revolution in the section on George Washington is semi-fiction.

For an accurate, well-researched account of the origins of American political thought, Bernard Bailyn is a much better and reliable historian.