Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
Founding Federalist: The Life of Oliver Ellsworth is a brief, wonderfully readable biography of the most important American you've never heard of.
Ellsworth played a critical role at the constitutional convention, then served the new government as a member of the Senate, where he drafted the legislation that formed the federal judiciary, as President John Adams's ambassador to France, where he made peace with the post-revolutionary regime, and as the third chief justice of the Supreme Court.
He was a moderate, a conciliator, a principled man who often sought compromise....Ellsworth was a devout Calvinist....How was it that [he]...was able to assert the moderate view while his more secular-minded colleagues frequently opted for more contentious policy agendas?
Today, religion, often viewed as divisive, is considered an impediment to political compromise. Things were different at the founding....Ellsworth's theological convictions were often the very reason why he proved to be politically influential. His form of Calvinism provided a profound reason to seek broad compromises that protected the nation from external threats and internal strife. God's will, his particular creed told him, was to preserve America's harmony.
The author of this deeply-researched, beautifully-written volume: Michael Toth. Now clerking for U.S. District Court judge Ursula Ungaro in Miami, young Mr. Toth started work on the book while serving as a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps--the "Jag Corps"--as a U.S. Marine.
A really splendid book.
That's my summer recommendation--one of them, anyway. What're yours?
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Oct '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
After viewing your most recent Uncommon Knowlege offering I am looking forward to "Trial of a Thousand Years".
Jun '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
Peter: There is a great article in the most recent New Criterion, another of the many ventures of Encounter Book's Roger Kimball, entitled Remembering James Wilson. (warning: it's behind a pay wall--but you owe it to yourself to subscribe). He's another of the forgotten founders and the article makes the case that we should know much more about him.
As to my summer book recommendation, war history buffs will love Normandy Crucible by John Prados. We tend to think the troops who landed on D-Day went through the Germans like a knife through hot butter--in fact, it took over two months to finally break out from Normandy. This book tells (as Paul Harvey would say) "the rest of the story" of the battle for Normandy. The book is of special interest to me because my Dad was there the entire time driving a a Sherman tank among the hedgerows.
John Batchelor, a couple of days ago, interviewed the author for a full hour. You can get it from i-Tunes. Lots of intrigue between Omar Bradley and Monty.
Edited on July 30, 2011 at 5:45pmJul '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
"Today, religion, often viewed as divisive, is considered an impediment to political compromise."
By whom?
Mar '11
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
He was great because he was a squish?
He was a moderate, a conciliator, a principled man who often sought compromise....Ellsworth... (???)
The great men of history were men of conviction. Maybe the above quote explains why Ellsworth isn't too well known. And if this is supposed to warm us to the Boehner bill disaster, it missed the mark.
May '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
Another founder I hope to read more about someday is Roger Sherman. Look up his Wiki...he's like early USA's Waldo.
AS for my reading..."Demonic", "Righteous Indignation", and David McCullough's latest, "The greater journey"
Edited on July 30, 2011 at 6:03pmNov '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
No nook book? Bummer...I can't get it "squirted."
Jul '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
I'm reading Alexis de Tocqueville by Joseph Epstein. The Frenchman wrote "'it is impossible to observe the ordinary course of affairs in the United States without noticing that the desire to be reelected dominates the thought of the president; that the whole policy of his administration is directed toward this end, his every action bent to this purpose; and that, particularly when the crisis looms, his own individual interest supplants the general interest in his mind."
That is in normal times. When you add a malignant narcissist to the mix, a concealed man of limited abilities whose background -- never vetted by an admiring MSM -- is shadowy to say the least, the potential for tragic blunders goes from nightmarish to the highly possible.
Jun '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
Jerry Carroll: I'm reading Alexis de Tocqueville by Joseph Epstein. The Frenchman wrote "'it is impossible to observe the ordinary course of affairs in the United States without noticing that the desire to be reelected dominates the thought of the president; that the whole policy of his administration is directed toward this end, his every action bent to this purpose; and that, particularly when the crisis looms, his own individual interest supplants the general interest in his mind."
That is in normal times. When you add a malignant narcissist to the mix, a concealed man of limited abilities whose background -- never vetted by an admiring MSM -- is shadowy to say the least, the potential for tragic blunders goes from nightmarish to the highly possible. ยท Jul 30 at 9:27am
Totally agree.
Any time someone mentions Joseph Epstein, I stand and cheer. He is America's best contemporary essayist. As far as I can tell, he's a good conservative who eschews writing on politics. He is equal parts humor, perceptive writing, and good common sense.
And, above all, a great defender of the great works of literature.
Nov '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
After watching your interview with the author, my husband is reading The Wages of Appeasement and loving it.
Recently read that I'd highly recommend:
* Crazy U (Ferguson): Simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny--and terrifying.
* Demonic (Coulter): Um, simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny--and terrifying.
Currently reading:
* Why America Needs School Choice (Green)
* Another Sort of Learning (Schall)
* The Road to Fatima Gate (Totten)
Pre-ordered and champing at the bit to read:
* Steyn's latest
* Pirate King (King)
Oct '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
May I also commend to your attention another founder you've likely never heard of, also the subject of a biography in the same ISI Books series, Luther Martin?
Jun '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
Layla: After watching your interview with the author, my husband is reading The Wages of Appeasement and loving it.
Recently read that I'd highly recommend:
. . . .
* Demonic (Coulter): Um, simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny--and terrifying.
Bruce Thornton is a colleague of our own VDH. I too recommend The Wages of Appeasement. Just as good is his Plagues of the Mind, a beautifully-argued evisceration of some of the modern pieties of political correctness. [I'm pretty sure Peter has interviewed him a couple of times on Uncommon Knowledge].
I've not been a Coulter fan until Demonic, which is a well-argued discussion of the mob mentality of the left.
Edited on July 30, 2011 at 8:03pmMay '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
It's fascinating that discussions of politics and economy inevitably lead us back to matters theological. I knew nothing about Oliver Ellsworth, but it's not surprising that another statesman with a Christian worldview rooted in reformation theology pops up in the early years of the republic; can anybody recommend a good biography of James Madison? I'm told (in Michael Horton's Putting Amazing Back Into Grace) that Madison's influence on the structure of our Constitution, with its checks and balances,
Sounds like Ellsworth had similar convictions to Madison.
Edited on July 30, 2011 at 9:23pmMay '10
Re: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
Some other good summer reading:
Alister McGrath's Christianity's Dangerous Idea is a decent overview of the protestant Christianity and how it developed from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first.
Michael Horton's Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, a kind of primer on the Christian theology of the Protestant Reformation.
Jonathan Aitken's John Newton: from Disgrace to Amazing Grace. Newton was a mentor to William Wilberforce, one of the driving figures behind the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Wilberforce and Newton are other figures whose lives were energized and motivated from a worldview rooted in the theology of the Protestant Reformation. It may not be correct to call Newton and Wilberforce Calvinists, but they were definitely shaped by the Protestant Reformation, Ellsworth seems to have been.
I still find Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money illuminating, and want to reread it soon. Ferguson expertly refuted Paul Krugman's Keynesian babbling in a public forum; it's still some of my favorite viewing (especially after a week like this one...)
Edited on July 30, 2011 at 8:57pmRe: Summer Reading: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
It is heartening to see that so many serious books on the Founders are out.
Sometimes the Founding gets forgotten though. The best way to understand the Founding is to study the public documents of the period. The lives of individual Founders are instructive and inspiring to read. But the principles of the Founding are best understood through study of the documents that express the public mind of the time.
The best collection known to me is the first volume of The Founders' Constitution, edited by Kurland and Lerner. The whole five volume set (the next four volumes cover the text of the Constitution and early amendments) is worth having, but the first volume, on the principles, is a must-read.
All five volumes are available on-line at the Liberty Fund website too.