AMERICAN CREATION is an audiobook that delineates an era of flawed greatness, at a time when understanding our origins is more important than ever. With eloquence and insight, Ellis strips the mythic veneer of the revolutionary generation to reveal men both human and inspired, possessed of both brilliance and blindness. He explains how the idea of a strong federal government was eventually embraced by the American people and details the emergence of the two-party system, which stands as the founders’ most enduring legacy.Įllis is equally incisive about their failures, and he makes clear how their inability to abolish slavery and to reach a just settlement with the Native Americans has played an equally important role in shaping our national character.

He casts an incisive eye on the founders’ achievements, arguing that the American Revolution was, paradoxically, an evolution–and that part of what made it so extraordinary was the gradual pace at which it occurred. Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation’s founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders–Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Adams. Buy a discounted Paperback of American Creation online from Australias leading online. His deepest concerns are the education of his daughter and the future of the Great Plains.From the first shots fired at Lexington to the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, Joseph J. Booktopia has American Creation, Vintage by Joseph J. Clay has written nine books, including the critically acclaimed The Character of Meriwether Lewis.Ĭlay lives in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he is a distinguished scholar of the humanities at Bismarck State College and the founder of the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University. He has made four documentary films himself. He has appeared in three Ken Burns documentary films, including the most recent film The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. Robert Oppenheimer, and John Wesley Powell.

He has portrayed a dozen historical characters, including Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Meriwether Lewis, J.

He has been named Humanities Scholar of the Year in Kansas, Nevada, and North Dakota.Ĭlay was one of the creators of the modern Chautauqua movement. All of his degrees are in Renaissance English literature.Ĭlay has won numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal, the highest honor conferred on a public humanities scholar in the United States. He attended the University of Minnesota, Oxford University, and the University of Colorado. Clay Jenkinson grew up on the western plains of North Dakota, not far from Theodore Roosevelt’s badlands.

American creation by joseph j ellis