Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

"This exploration of early American leadership and compromise fits Jamie Dimon's interest in historical figures navigating complex challenges, aligning with his focus on business and history."

"Ellis wrote this quite small book, Founding Brothers, for which he won the Pulitzer, I think. And he’s very bold and brave because what he does in looking at the period just after the American Revolution is, instead of writing a massive 700-page book, he just gives you seven events which will tell you everything you need to know. So, in terms of narrative structure, it’s a great book. One example he takes, that he titles ‘The Dinner’, is a dinner party hosted by Thomas Jefferson for James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in June 1790. At the time Madison and Hamilton were at complete loggerheads about two things: one is the financial plan that Hamilton is proposing as the Secretary of Treasury, which is all about very close financial and trading ties with Britain, and which Madison, as a Virginia planter, hates. Then, on the other side, there’s the big question of where the new capital of America is going to be. The northern states want it somewhere like Philadelphia or New York, which have commercial ties, and the southern states don’t want that because at that time the 13 states are only just growing up from being a war alliance and are concerned that the United States will become a mercantile country rather than an agrarian republic. So there’s this ongoing struggle between the two men and Jefferson brings them together at this dinner party over lots of French wine and good food cooked by the French cook and they reach an agreement whereby Madison agrees to accept Hamilton’s financial plan, if he will accept that the capital will be in the middle of nowhere, a place which will become Washington DC. So what Ellis does is take this one moment and cast it as a narrative device. Other events include the duel between Aaron Burr and Hamilton, the friendship between Adams and Jefferson, Washington’s farewell address, which he really spins out. I think that’s a brilliant way of getting into big history: through small moments. I do think that there are paradigms in these kinds of moments that we can only see in hindsight and it makes a very effective way of telling a story."