MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 02569cam a2200325 a 4500
001 2005055524
003 DLC
005 20070511143659.0
008 051102s2006 nyu b 001 0ceng
010 $a 2005055524
020 $a1594200939
020 $a9781594200939
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm62290624
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dBAKER$dOCO$dC#P$dBUR$dDLC
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aE302.5$b.W82 2006
082 00 $a973.3092/2$aB$222
100 1 $aWood, Gordon S.
245 10 $aRevolutionary characters :$bwhat made the founders different /$cGordon S. Wood.
260 $aNew York :$bPenguin Press,$c2006.
300 $ax, 321 p. ;$c25 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [275]-307) and index.
505 0 $aIntroduction: The founders and the Enlightenment -- The greatness of George Washington -- The invention of Benjamin Franklin -- The trials and tribulations of Thomas Jefferson -- Alexander Hamilton and the making of a fiscal-military state -- Is there a "James Madison problem"? -- The relevance and irrelevance of John Adams -- Thomas Paine, America's first public intellectual -- The real treason of Aaron Burr -- The founders and the creation of modern public opinion.
520 $aA series of 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 is the idea of character as a lived reality for these men. For these were men, Wood shows, who took the matter of character very seriously. They were the first generation in history that was self-consciously self-made, men who considered the arc of lives, as of nations, as being one of moral progress. They saw themselves as comprising the world's first meritocracy, as opposed to the decadent Old World aristocracy of inherited wealth and station. Historian Wood's 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, and that the virtues they defined for themselves are the virtues we aspire to still.--From publisher description.
651 0 $aUnited States$xHistory$yRevolution, 1775-1783$vBiography.
650 0 $aStatesmen$zUnited States$vBiography.
650 0 $aRevolutionaries$zUnited States$vBiography.
651 0 $aUnited States$xPolitics and government$y1775-1783.
856 42 $3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0721/2005055524-b.html
856 42 $3Publisher description$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0721/2005055524-d.html