
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
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...




















Critic reviews
"Of those writing about the founding fathers, [Gordon Wood] is quite simply the best." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
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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.
Not as informative as I'd hoped for
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Surprisingly Relevant
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wow.
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Animated narration but
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wonderful summary of the founding characters
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Typical academic
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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.
Nice little book for short attention span people
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ew
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Wood clearly dislikes Adams
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If this topic is very interesting to you, I'm sure you'd probably like the book. If not, save your time.
If you're interested...
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