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Founding Fathers: Brief Lives of the Framers of the United States Constitution (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: stronger central government, ratification convention, New York, North Carolina, New Jersey (more...)
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Product Description

One was a shoemaker, surveyor, lawyer, jurist, lay theologian, and statesman. 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. And when they came together in Philadelphia in 1787, they produced the framework for the most influential document in the history of the United States.

Yet, says M. E. Bradford, the fifty-five original Framers of the U.S. Constitution didn't view themselves as demigods out to "invent" a country. Instead they tackled the nuts and bolts of constitution building by relying on a shared philosophical legacy inherited from more than 1,000 years of British history and culture.

In this concise and valuable reference work--the only compilation of biographical sketches for all fifty-five Framers who attended the Philadelphia Convention--Bradford examines the Framer's constitutional theories, their visions for the newly founded union, and their opinions on ratification of the document that would address such paramount issues as national revenue, public debt, currency, removal of trade barriers between the states, and provisions for the common defense.

Delving into the political and philosophical principles of the founders, Bradford illuminates their motives, thoughts, and actions and illustrates how their political decision-making was influenced by religion, education, environment, economic circumstances, and personal background.



From the Back Cover

Originally published as A Worthy Company

"As the only concise compilation of these biographies available, this is an invaluable reference work done by a scholar who devoted his life to the study of the founding of the American Constitution."--John P. Kaminski, Director, Center for the Study of the American Constitution

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 244 pages
  • Publisher: University Press of Kansas; 2 Revised edition (March 1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0700606572
  • ISBN-13: 978-0700606573
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #219,543 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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M. E. Bradford
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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New York, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, United States, Great Convention, Continental Congress, James Madison, New England, George Washington, American Revolution, George Mason, Confederation Congress, New Hampshire, James Wilson, John Dickinson, Alexander Hamilton, House of Representatives, Benjamin Franklin, Chapel Hill, Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, Edmund Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, New Haven
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Can't tell the players without a program, July 19, 2005
By Andrew S. Rogers (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
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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.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Founding Fathers: Framers of the Constitution, September 23, 2004
~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.
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21 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An erudite analysis on the framers and their intentions, May 19, 1999
By A Customer
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Founding Fathers
"Founding Fathers" is well written and well researched. Many thought provoking biographica sketches of the "Founding Fathers" from each of the 13 states. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Raymond I. Keffer

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Review of the Founding Fathers
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... Read more
Published on September 21, 2007 by Jesse D. Roy

1.0 out of 5 stars Badly Documented, Flawed Premise
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,... Read more
Published on July 18, 2000 by Kevin F. Kiley

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent piece of scholarship.
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. Read more
Published on July 24, 1999

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