Founding Partisans

Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics

By: H. W. Brands

Narrated by: Robert Fass

From bestselling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H.W. Brands, a revelatory history of the shocking emergence of vicious political division at the birth of the United States.

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.

The first party, the Federalists, formed around Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and their efforts to overthrow the Articles of Confederation and make the federal government more robust. Their opponents organized as the Antifederalists, who feared the corruption and encroachments on liberty that a strong central government would surely bring. The Antifederalists lost but regrouped under the new Constitution as the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, whose bruising contest against Federalist John Adams marked the climax of this turbulent chapter of American political history.

The country’s first years unfolded in a contentious spiral of ugly elections and blatant violations of the Constitution. Still, peaceful transfers of power continued, and the nascent country made its way towards global dominance, against all odds. Founding Partisans is a powerful reminder that fierce partisanship is a problem as old as the republic.

©2023 H. W. Brands (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A Kirkus Reviews Best History Book of 2023

"An essential book for understanding the foundation of American partisanship.” —Kirkus Reviews *Starred Review*

"The author writes with a sharp and absorbing style, turning what could be a fairly dry topic into a highly readable tale worthy of a cable miniseries with backstabbing characters, high drama, shady deals, and huge egos all clashing to determine the course of the new country. For anyone who thinks that gridlock and partisan machinations are a recent development, this book will quickly lay those misconceptions to rest." —New York Journal of Books

"As H.W. Brands reminds us in this absorbing new book, partisanship is an ancient, indeed perennial, force in human affairs. From the early hours of the Republic, Americans of good will have struggled to ensure that party feeling be not reflexive but reflective. On that distinction, the Founders understood, hangs the fate of popular government." —Jon Meacham

Very educational

Founding Partisans

H.W. Brands

I have come to find the author reliable and relatable. I would have enjoyed if he had narrated the audiobook, because his enthusiasm for history comes out in his delivery.

There have been many books about the relationships between the founding fathers. What makes this book unique is that a great deal of quotations from the subject’s correspondence are used. Not without explanation, so it is useful.

The use of these quotations forces the listener/reader to slow down and almost interpret their words into modern vernacular.

An example is Hamilton’s public apology for his sex scandal. He very eloquently goes to great length to explain that he thought with the wrong head and was taken in by the badger game. He explains about his suffering wife and how he did not use public funds to pay the blackmail money.

Initially this verbosity makes one think, could you just tell me what happened in plain English?

However… you quickly realize if you slow down and analyze, you’re actually taking a breath and enjoying taking a little time, growing to know the founders better.

Letters and documents gave emotions of the time. New insight

Some of the style, colloquialisms, expressions of that time period were hard for me to follow. But that is my fault. I would have better understanding with a hard copy.

Difficult and illuminating

We have always been a country with an ideal that leaders cannot reach. Some truly try. Some do not. Some trust “the people”. Some do not. And some are simply power hungry and unworthy. None, none are perfect

Makes you feel you were there

History echoes as well as rhymes. Today's partisanship seems not to exceed that of the nation's earliest years. Yet today's bad faith arguments lack a parallel in the years of the founding. The founders would not have have been surprised by the emergence of a would be tyrant, but many would be sorely disappointed by his cult of followers. On
e wishes today's partisanship was the result of real issues, not the pursuit of raw power.

Comments from a reader

I think this is an okay look into American political party history, not great but not bad. I think there was too much 18th century English used, making it hard to understand the book if you do not study English from that time period.