Synopses & Reviews
A lively, timely, and surprising exploration of how America's Founding Fathers would handle the most controversial issues facing the nation today from the acclaimed popular historian Richard Brookhiser
Why do Americans care so much about the Founding Fathers? After all, the French don't ask themselves, "What would Napoleon do?" But Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and Adams built our country, wrote our user's manuals the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and ran the nation while it was still under warranty and could be returned to the manufacturer. If anyone knows how the U.S.A. should work, they did and they still do.
Richard Brookhiser has been writing, talking, and thinking about the Founders for years. Now he channels them. What would Hamilton think about free trade? What would Franklin make of the national obsession with values? What would Washington say about gays in the military? Examining a host of issues from terrorism to women's rights to gun control, Brookhiser reveals why we still turn to the Founders in moments of struggle, farce, or disaster just as Lincoln, FDR, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bill Clinton have done before us.
Written with Brookhiser's trademark eloquence and a good dose of wit while drawing on his deep knowledge of American history, What Would the Founders Do? sheds new light on the disagreements and debates that have shaped our country from the beginning. Brookhiser challenges us to think and act with the clarity that the Founders brought to the task of making a democratic country. Now, more than ever, we need these creators of America argumentative, expansive, funny know-it-alls to help us solve the issues that threaten to divide us.
Review
"Brookhiser uses the Founders' written and oral statements to imagine their thoughts concerning contemporary issues ranging from stem cells and terrorism to censorship and gay marriage." Library Journal
Review
"[As] an intellectual exercise, this is an enjoyable, stimulating work." Booklist
Synopsis
A lively, timely, and surprising exploration of how America's Founding Fathers would handle the most controversial issues facing the nation today--from the acclaimed popular historian Richard Brookhiser.
About the Author
Richard Brookhiser is the author of Rules of Civility, Founding Father, The Way of the WASP, Alexander Hamilton, America's First Dynasty, and Gentleman Revolutionary. He was the curator of the critically acclaimed Alexander Hamilton exhibit at the New York Historical Society. He is a columnist for the New York Observer, contributes regularly to the National Review, and has written for the New Yorker and the New York Times. He lives in New York City.