Ellis on American Creation and the Founding

Joseph Ellis, of Mt. Holyoke College and author of American Creation, talks about the triumphs and tragedies of the founding of the United States. His goal in the book and in this podcast is to tell a story for grownups rather than for children, where the Founders are neither saints nor evil white, patriarchal slave-holding demons. It is a nuanced story of triumph--a military victory over a seemingly unbeatable vastly more experienced army, the creation of the first geographically large republic, a nation without a state religion, a nation that creates a party system with a loyal opposition, a Constitution with the virtues of ambiguous sovereignty, and tragedy--the failure to resolve the slavery issue, and the tragic conflict with the Native Americans. Some of these outcomes were intended by the Founders, others emerged unintended.

You can listen to Ellis on American Creation and the Founding online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ellis on American Creation and the Founding is an episode from EconTalk Archives, 2008 by Library of Economics and Liberty.

This episode is 1:07:33 long.

This episode was published on Sep 8, 2008.

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