Something That Will Surprise the World: The Essential Writings of the Founding Fathers

About this book

The Founding Fathers--Washington Hamilton Jefferson Adams Madison. Subjects of seemingly infinite biographies they are rarely allowed to speak to us in their own words. But it was their words that mattered most to them. As James Madison once wrote "the biography of an author must be a history of his writings." Here finally these towering figures come together in one volume--in conversation with each other and with us. The Founders were thinking revolutionaries--they read questioned debated and most of all wrote. They theorized about government and political institutions; considered the problem of parties and factions; and reflected on religion and education. In this volume eminent historian Susan Dunn brings together the Founders most important letters speeches and essays and sets them in the context of their lives and times. Through their words the Founders created the first democracy of the modern world. Their courage imagination and genius would never be surpassed. Here they are in the present tense of their extraordinary lives. To truly understand them this is where we must begin.