Point of View

Founding Brothers is written by a respected scholar of the revolutionary era who knows from classroom experience the misconceptions that have attached to this period. He has mastered the scholarly material and helps interpret for the reader how to balance the long- and short-term views of history, which is particularly important in covering an era in which the principals were acutely aware that they were making history.

Setting

Founding Brothers is set in Britain's former American colonies in the decade following their successful war of independence. Much of the action takes place in the two early capitals, New York and Philadelphia, but spreads out to John Adams' home in Quincy, MA, Thomas Jefferson's estate at Monticello, VA, and George Washington's Mount Vernon and the adjoining site of the permanent capital on the Potomac, Washington, DC. The first dramatic scenario plays out on a ledge overlooking the...