Revolutionary Characters
What Made the Founders Different
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Narrated by:
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Scott Brick
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By:
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Gordon S. Wood
About this listen
Revolutionary Characters offers a series of brilliantly illuminating studies of the men who came to be known as the founding fathers. Each life is considered in the round, but the thread that binds the work together and gives it the cumulative power of a revelation is this idea of character as a lived reality for these men. For these were men, Gordon Wood shows, who took the matter of character very, very seriously. They were the first generation in history that was self-consciously self-made, men who understood the arc of lives, as of nations, as being one of moral progress. They saw themselves as comprising the world's first true meritocracy, a natural aristocracy as opposed to the decadent Old World aristocracy of inherited wealth and station.
Gordon Wood's wondrous accomplishment here is to bring these men and their times down to earth and within our reach, showing us just who they were and what drove them. In so doing, he shows us that although a lot has changed in 200 years, to an amazing degree the virtues these founders defined for themselves are the virtues we aspire to still.
©2006 Gordon Wood (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and Books on Tape. All rights reserved. Penguin Audio is a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"Of those writing about the founding fathers, [Gordon Wood] is quite simply the best." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
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Thomas Jefferson
- By: R. B. Bernstein
- Narrated by: Phil Holland
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Jefferson designed his own tombstone, describing himself simply as "Author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia". It is in this simple epitaph that R. B. Bernstein finds the key to this enigmatic Founder - not as a great political figure, but as leader of "a revolution of ideas that would make the world over again". In Thomas Jefferson, Bernstein offers the definitive short biography of this revered American - the first concise life in six decades. Bernstein deftly synthesizes the massive scholarship on his subject into a swift, insightful, evenhanded account.
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In-Depth and Interesting
- By Sarahi Nieves on 04-24-19
By: R. B. Bernstein
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The Lost History of Liberalism
- From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century
- By: Helena Rosenblatt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry - and a term of derision - in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking listeners from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism", revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights.
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Educative and informative
- By Amazon Customer on 06-05-19
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Fears of a Setting Sun
- The Disillusionment of America's Founders
- By: Dennis C. Rasmussen
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Americans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the republican government that the founders created. Strikingly, the founders themselves were far less confident in what they had wrought, particularly by the end of their lives. In fact, most of them - including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson - came to deem America's constitutional experiment an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation.
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A different perspective on the founders
- By kpa on 03-04-24
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Decision in Philadelphia
- The Constitutional Convention of 1787
- By: James Collier, Christopher Collier
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty-five men met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create a country and change a world: the Constitution. Here is a remarkable rendering of that fateful time, told with humanity and humor. Decision in Philadelphia is the best popular history of the Constitutional Convention; in it, the life and times of 18th-century America not only come alive, but the very human qualities of the men who framed the document are brought provocatively into focus - casting many of the Founding Fathers in a new light.
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excellent book
- By Josh on 09-13-12
By: James Collier, and others
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The Paranoid Style in American Politics
- By: Richard Hofstadter, Sean Wilentz - foreward
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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This timely reissue of Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs. In The Paranoid Style in American Politics, acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence - and derail - the larger agendas of a political party.
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Written in the 50s and 60s...
- By Kindle Customer on 11-06-19
By: Richard Hofstadter, and others
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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
- By: Bernard Bailyn
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, "Fulfillment", as a postscript. Here he discusses the intense nationwide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution.
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Bernard Bailyn is a genius!
- By John M. Crean on 04-21-19
By: Bernard Bailyn
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Inventing a Nation
- Washington, Adams, Jefferson
- By: Gore Vidal
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht, Gore Vidal
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Volumes have been written about George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, but no previous work captures the intimate and vital details the way Inventing a Nation does. Vidal's consummate skill takes you into the minds and private rooms of these great men, illuminating their opinions of one another and their concerns about crafting a workable democracy.
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Reader Beware: Mixed with a political agenda
- By Robert on 09-09-04
By: Gore Vidal
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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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Changed the Way I Think
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This Audible book is NOT for a popular audience!
- By BigWally on 11-22-18
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The Idea of America
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The preeminent historian of the American Revolution explains why it remains the most significant event in our history
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Sophisticated analyses
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I have good news and bad news
- By Ernie on 07-22-04
By: Gordon S. Wood
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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
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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
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Changed the Way I Think
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I have good news and bad news
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The American Revolution
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The American Revolution signalled a great change in the course of world history and progress. From this colonial revolt sprouted ideals of liberty and democracy, and all the aspirations and ambitions of a new people. In this work, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood discusses the character and consequences of the revolution, grounding the events and ideas that shaped the American consciousness.
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The foremost scholar on the subject
- By Robert on 08-20-05
By: Gordon S. Wood
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Power and Liberty
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The half century extending from the imperial crisis between Britain and its colonies in the 1760s to the early decades of the new republic of the United States was the greatest and most creative era of constitutionalism in American history, and perhaps in the world. During these decades, Americans explored and debated all aspects of politics and constitutionalism - the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, the division of authority between different spheres of government, sovereignty, judicial authority, and written constitutions.
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Provides Context for Todays Mess
- By Tad on 07-20-24
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The Purpose of the Past
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History is to society what memory is to the individual. Without it, we don't know who we are and we can't make wise decisions about our future. But while the nature of memory is constant, the nature of history has changed radically over the past 40 years. Historian Gordon Wood examines the sea change in his field through consideration of some of its most important historians and their works.
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What is his point?
- By Tammy on 03-21-08
By: Gordon S. Wood
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Founding Partisans
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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.
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Very educational
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The Cause
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George Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction. At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: Former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radical change without their colonists’ consent. With The Cause, Ellis takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783.
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Modest history primer, wished for more substance
- By Buretto on 10-21-21
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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Washington
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- Unabridged
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In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
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A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
What listeners say about Revolutionary Characters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- A. Ware
- 04-11-08
Not as informative as I'd hoped for
This was an interesting book, but not as many "new" things about the founding fathers as I'd hoped to hear.
And Scott Brick was not the best choice of narrator for this book. I usually enjoy his narrations, but he was a bit too low key and monotone for this type of book, and I found it hard to keep my attention on the content. A more animated read might have made this come alive a bit more.
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9 people found this helpful
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- DD
- 04-16-22
Surprisingly Relevant
As a history buff, I expected - and discovered - many new glimpses into the characters of our Revolutionary Period. But it was as a political buff, I was surprised to read of the tension and open conflict between the political elite and political populism whose divergent worldviews continue to divide our national culture today.
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- Gabbyaboutbooks
- 06-04-18
wow.
Wow. This book was amazing. Gordon Wood is a phenomenal writer. If I could have any writing style it would be his! The content is super fascinating too. Wood dedicated a chapter to the founding fathers he believed were the most influential in creating America. He had the obvious ones but he also had some surprising ones like Thomas Paine and Aaron Burr! I loved how he compared and contrasted them and brought them into the greater context of American history. That is, he didnt just talk about their lives but how their influence is still relevant in today's world. His section on public opinion and argument of how the founders created a culture that ultimately was their demise was the cherry on top of an amazing book. This was an audiobook and the narration is on point! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 stars! Highly recommend!!!!!!
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- Ashley King
- 03-03-23
Animated narration but
One error in the first chapter, the substitution of the word public for private which renders the quote nonsensical.
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- Roanld Tenney
- 10-29-22
wonderful summary of the founding characters
in this short book you can read about many of the most important founders from the perspective of one of the most eminent American historians. plus, I love the voice and style of Scott Brick.
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Overall
- K. Misek
- 07-31-08
Typical academic
Gordon Wood is your typical liberal "founding fathers were not what you think they were" academic writer. While he is not as vitriolic as some, he is determined for us to see the founding fathers as aristocrats more self-serving and conniving than patriotic and noble. But I admit, I keep reading him. He is interesting and knowledgeable about important aspects of American history. For a more balanced and reflective interpretation of the founding fathers, I must recommend Joseph Ellis. I trust him more, but I do admit I can not ignore Wood's work.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Jose
- 03-22-18
Nice little book for short attention span people
Great narration here, can’t do better than Scott Brick
The book is good for a generally uninformed person to start on independence era history. It’s a decent starter on history of the founding fathers. Much better than a Wikipedia search
Basically, if you have read Chernows Washington or Meachem’s Jefferson this book is a quick summary.
The best part of this book is the first chapter. That would have been enough and it would be a really good 1hr book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Richard
- 01-13-19
ew
why would anyone ever write this. dry and slow, worse than my apush textbook, and that's saying something.
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Overall
- Michael
- 01-15-07
Wood clearly dislikes Adams
I had been really looking forward to this book. And I will admit right up front that I like John Adams so I might be letting that cloud my judgement, but Mr. Wood is clearly not very impressed with him and it shows. I have listened to and read a lot of books on the the revolutionary period and based on this book you get the impression that Adams should not even be called a founding father. I stopped listening after the Adams chapter since I could no longer trust what the author was saying. I am sorry I wasted a credit on this book.
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33 people found this helpful
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- Grange '64
- 03-09-22
The worst performance imaginable!
I have never heard such a ridiculous performance on any of the hundreds of audiobooks I’ve listened to!
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