Outside Reading Project (Founding Brothers) critical summary and adjective-itis

Markeia Scruggs
October 13, 2009
Outside reading essay

“Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation”
“Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” is a composition of stories of six events in American history that helped to form the nation we have today. Arthur, Joseph J. Ellis, combines strong diction and ground facts to take on and explain the controversies that have burdened America since it’s founding. This extremely complex and intricate book explains the most famous events in history and how they have created controversies. The overall content of the book is really informative and interesting, though the diction can be a little complicated and hard to comprehend at some points.
The most important characters in the book are Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison. These seven men are the founding brothers of the United States of America. It may seem weird to connect them so sacredly and closely, but in a way, they are like brothers. The worked together as do brothers to get to their end result of a nation. They are also like brothers, because they all fought for their precious treasure, America, so that she can be well taken care of. Though they may have had conflicts with each other occasionally, they were still connected as brothers who created a nation. For example, the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Like brothers, they fought and had differences of opinions, but in the end, they worked together to craft America.
In summary, Joseph J. Ellis used these important events that resulted in controversies to explain how the United States was formed. He used the tasks of our “founding brothers” and analyzes and describes their importance to the reader. By doing this I have received a better understanding of these events and their results. Because such great diction and description was used, I can now explain to others the founding brothers and how they founded our nation.




Markeia Scruggs
October 13, 2009
Adjective-itis
1. Proud
Alexander Hamilton, as described in “Founding Brothers”, was a proud individual. According to the book, an individual was given the choice to either accept or decline a duel. If declined, the individual is deemed to be a coward and thought of as less of a man. As a result, Hamilton proudly accepted. He is also viewed as proud because he chose to not apologize or even acknowledge the fact that he tainted Aaron Burr’s election.
2. Determined
John Adams was a determined being because he was successful in the aspects of his life. He received a good education and continued on to become a constitutional lawyer.
3. Leader
George Washington was obviously a leader. He was the first president of the United States, and was commander-in-chief of the army. He was a highly respected being and that’s why he deserves the title of leader.
4. Informative
“Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” is an extremely informative book. It gave an insight on what many may’ve never known about important events in history.
5. Complex
“Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” is an extremely descriptive book. It uses large vocabulary terms and the diction can be confusing.