
Founding Partisans
Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics
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Narrated by:
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Robert Fass
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By:
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H. W. Brands
About this listen
From bestselling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H.W. Brands, a revelatory history of the shocking emergence of vicious political division at the birth of the United States.
To the framers of the Constitution, political parties were a fatal threat to republican virtues. They had suffered the consequences of partisan politics in Britain before the American Revolution, and they wanted nothing similar for America. Yet parties emerged even before the Constitution was ratified, and they took firmer root in the following decade. In Founding Partisans, master historian H. W. Brands has crafted a fresh and lively narrative of the early years of the republic as the Founding Fathers fought one another with competing visions of what our nation would be.
The first party, the Federalists, formed around Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and their efforts to overthrow the Articles of Confederation and make the federal government more robust. Their opponents organized as the Antifederalists, who feared the corruption and encroachments on liberty that a strong central government would surely bring. The Antifederalists lost but regrouped under the new Constitution as the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, whose bruising contest against Federalist John Adams marked the climax of this turbulent chapter of American political history.
The country’s first years unfolded in a contentious spiral of ugly elections and blatant violations of the Constitution. Still, peaceful transfers of power continued, and the nascent country made its way towards global dominance, against all odds. Founding Partisans is a powerful reminder that fierce partisanship is a problem as old as the republic.
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Critic reviews
A Kirkus Reviews Best History Book of 2023
"An essential book for understanding the foundation of American partisanship.” —Kirkus Reviews *Starred Review*
"The author writes with a sharp and absorbing style, turning what could be a fairly dry topic into a highly readable tale worthy of a cable miniseries with backstabbing characters, high drama, shady deals, and huge egos all clashing to determine the course of the new country. For anyone who thinks that gridlock and partisan machinations are a recent development, this book will quickly lay those misconceptions to rest." —New York Journal of Books
"As H.W. Brands reminds us in this absorbing new book, partisanship is an ancient, indeed perennial, force in human affairs. From the early hours of the Republic, Americans of good will have struggled to ensure that party feeling be not reflexive but reflective. On that distinction, the Founders understood, hangs the fate of popular government." —Jon Meacham
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Story
Master storyteller and best-selling historian H. W. Brands narrates the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln - two men moved to radically different acts to confront our nation’s gravest sin. The Zealot and the Emancipator is acclaimed historian H. W. Brands' thrilling account of how two American giants shaped the war for freedom.
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I Never Knew That!
- By William G. Stuart on 10-19-20
By: H. W. Brands
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Traitor to His Class
- The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 37 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping, magisterial biography of the man generally considered the greatest president of the 20th century, admired by Democrats and Republicans alike. Traitor to His Class sheds new light on FDR's formative years; his remarkable willingness to champion the concerns of the poor and disenfranchised; and his combination of political genius, firm leadership, and matchless diplomacy in saving democracy during the Great Depression and the American cause of freedom in World War II.
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Talented writer and narrator, but too biased/long
- By todd on 01-24-20
By: H. W. Brands
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T.R.
- The Last Romantic
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 35 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Lauded as "a rip-roaring life" (Wall Street Journal), T.R. is a magisterial biography of Theodore Roosevelt by best-selling author H. W. Brands. In his time, there was no more popular national figure than Roosevelt. It was not just the energy he brought to every political office he held or his unshakable moral convictions that made him so popular, or even his status as a bona fide war hero. Most important, Theodore Roosevelt was loved by the people because this scion of a privileged New York family loved America and Americans.
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Too much opinion
- By Jen Daniels on 01-26-20
By: H. W. Brands
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Lone Star Nation
- How a Ragged Army of Courageous Volunteers Won the Battle for Texas Independence
- By: H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Lone Star Nation is the gripping story of Texas' precarious journey to statehood, from its early colonization in the 1820s to the shocking massacres of Texas loyalists at the Alamo and Goliad by the Mexican army, from its rough-and-tumble years as a land overrun by the Comanches to its day of liberation as an upstart republic.
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Texas: From Spanish colony to statehood
- By Brian Shivers on 04-06-05
By: H.W. Brands
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Dreams of El Dorado
- A History of the American West
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame - and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.
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Dreadful narration
- By Fredmo on 12-09-19
By: H. W. Brands
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The Money Men
- Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years' War over the American Dollar
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A best-selling historian's gripping account of the powerful men who controlled America's financial destiny. From the first days of the United States, a battle raged over money. On one side were the democrats, who wanted cheap money and feared the concentration of financial interests in the hands of a few. On the other were the capitalists who sought the soundness of a national bank and the profits that came with it.
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Not clear what this book is really about
- By Chris on 07-03-08
By: H. W. Brands
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American Creation
- Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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From the first shots fired at Lexington to the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, Joseph J. Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation's founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Adams.
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Good But Not Quite There
- By Slide01 on 06-02-13
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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The Modern Scholar
- The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Professor H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: H.W. Brands
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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This course examines the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. He remains the model of the American thinker - a man who was interested in nearly everything, and who pursued those interests with an admirable and contagious passion. To study Franklin's life is to learn not only the history of a single man, but to understand some of the most monumental changes in all of human history.
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Love it
- By Holly on 02-20-16
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Jefferson and Hamilton
- The Rivalry That Forged a Nation
- By: John Ferling
- Narrated by: Bo Foxworth
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The decade of the 1790s has been called the "age of passion". Fervor ran high as rival factions battled over the course of the new republic - each side convinced that the other's goals would betray the legacy of the Revolution so recently fought and so dearly won. All understood as well that what was at stake was not a moment's political advantage, but the future course of the American experiment in democracy. In this epochal debate, no two figures loomed larger than Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
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Biased and low quality
- By Yolanda Yzquierdo on 12-04-22
By: John Ferling
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The Quartet
- Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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From Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian Joseph J. Ellis, the unexpected story of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew.
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bias is not good history
- By Craig on 01-24-18
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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Friends Divided
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government.
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A Great Read
- By Jean on 12-22-17
By: Gordon S. Wood
What listeners say about Founding Partisans
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Lynn R. Carlson
- 07-05-24
Difficult and illuminating
We have always been a country with an ideal that leaders cannot reach. Some truly try. Some do not. Some trust “the people”. Some do not. And some are simply power hungry and unworthy. None, none are perfect
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- SMcD
- 01-27-24
Letters and documents gave emotions of the time. New insight
Some of the style, colloquialisms, expressions of that time period were hard for me to follow. But that is my fault. I would have better understanding with a hard copy.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mark Mears
- 02-21-24
Very educational
Founding Partisans
H.W. Brands
I have come to find the author reliable and relatable. I would have enjoyed if he had narrated the audiobook, because his enthusiasm for history comes out in his delivery.
There have been many books about the relationships between the founding fathers. What makes this book unique is that a great deal of quotations from the subject’s correspondence are used. Not without explanation, so it is useful.
The use of these quotations forces the listener/reader to slow down and almost interpret their words into modern vernacular.
An example is Hamilton’s public apology for his sex scandal. He very eloquently goes to great length to explain that he thought with the wrong head and was taken in by the badger game. He explains about his suffering wife and how he did not use public funds to pay the blackmail money.
Initially this verbosity makes one think, could you just tell me what happened in plain English?
However… you quickly realize if you slow down and analyze, you’re actually taking a breath and enjoying taking a little time, growing to know the founders better.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 02-13-24
Makes you feel you were there
History echoes as well as rhymes. Today's partisanship seems not to exceed that of the nation's earliest years. Yet today's bad faith arguments lack a parallel in the years of the founding. The founders would not have have been surprised by the emergence of a would be tyrant, but many would be sorely disappointed by his cult of followers. On
e wishes today's partisanship was the result of real issues, not the pursuit of raw power.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Allison Reasoner
- 12-05-24
Too much reliance on long quotes instead of analysis and summary
Too much reliance on long quotes instead of analysis and summary. Not enjoyable and did not seem to provide original thoughts or comparisons to today. Seemed to mainly be a compilation of quotes from letters.
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- Kindle Customer
- 12-10-23
Comments from a reader
I think this is an okay look into American political party history, not great but not bad. I think there was too much 18th century English used, making it hard to understand the book if you do not study English from that time period.
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