About this title: Gore Vidal's lifelong interest in the United States, and in particular the period of the Founding Fathers, is here on display in his uniquely tendentious take on the first three presidents. Through these portraits, Vidal recreates the historical contexts and the key debates and personalities that established what has been called the world's greatest experiment.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780300101713ISBN:0300101716
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780300105926ISBN:0300105924
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780300105926ISBN:0300105924
Description: Fine in Near Fine jacket. 0300105924 Slight cover curl. Clean and unmarked. Softcover (208 pages) One of the master stylists of American literature, Gore Vidal now provides us with his uniquely irreverent take on America"s founding fathers, bringing them to life at key moments of decision in the birthing of the nation. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780300105926ISBN:0300105924
Description: Fine. 0300105924 Excellent condition Soft cover book, clean pages, No creases to spine, this book is Near NEW! Shop & Save With US. read more
"I might have been distracted. I was listening to this as an audiobook, and I was almost a week off my meds when I did. I didn't realize until later that going off them this time around wasn't a good idea. But beyond that, it didn't seem to give me any new insights or significant new understanding. He did have some fun criticisms of our current political situation though. That was neat."
"I learned so much about American history and politics from this book! This is a MUST READ for all Americans to understand why our government is the way it is. Plus, I answered 2 final Jeopardy questions recently from the knowledge I attained from reading this book. I can only say I wish I read this sooner."
"Vidal has a sharp pen and an eloquent tongue, but I found many of his comments to be scarcely more than snide remarks. Rather than an academic approach, with at least an effort or pretense toward a neutral position or offering of opinion only when couched with presentation of evidence, Vidal seems to freely inject his own personal politics into the text. His telling is not comprehensive or systematic, but more like selective outtakes from history that he uses as a stump for pontificating. This is not to say that there are not useful and interesting stories or points in his narrative, or that I disagree with all his opinions. The one compelling point he makes at the end of the book is from a conversation he had with JFK where the president asks how it is that the genius of the founding fathers came from such a small population base (3 million). One answer offered is that men of that era did not have the distractions of today's pop culture; that those men spent much time in thought and study of the body of knowledge and philosophy emerging from the age of enlightenment."
"Gore Vidal's elegant take on the founding fathers who in his jaundiced view are sketchy, brilliant and kind of ridiculous...but uniquely American. Contemporary American political figures pale by comparison, but they weren't all that the general public thinks; Alexander Hamilton a British spy? The head of the American army during the Washington Administration an agent of Spain? It was all fast and loose in the 1790s, and they sure weren't Evangelical Christians. To really understand American history you have to read Gore Vidal's books and essays."
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