Joseph J. Ellis

Joseph J. Ellis is the Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College. Educated at the College of William and Mary and Yale University, he served as a captain in the army and taught at West Point before coming to Mount Holyoke in 1972. He was dean of the faculty there for ten years. Among his previous books are Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams and American Sphinx, which won the 1997 National Book Award.

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Drawing from the newly catalogued Washington papers at the University of Virginia, the author paints a full portrait of Washington's life and career in the context of eighteenth-century America, richly detailing his private life and illustrating the ways in which it influenced his public persona. When Washington died in 1799, Ellis tells us, he was eulogized as "first in the hearts of his countrymen." Since then, however, his image has been chiseled...

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years.
John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in their personal correspondence: both Adamses were prolific...

A biographical character analysis of John Adams. Examines, explores, dissects, and analyzes the character of Adams principally through his writings: to his wife Abigail, with his son John Quincy, with Thomas Jefferson during his retirement years and with multitudes of others. Also examines Adams' publications such as his Defence of the constitutions of government of the United States of America (1787) and his Thoughts on governments (1776).

The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing...

A chronological survey of the period from 1763 to 1800 and examination of the American Revolution. Key figures discussed include: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, Joseph Plumb Martin, Abigail Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.