In a landmark work of history, the National Book Award—winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed men–Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison–set the course for our nation.

Joseph Ellis illuminates the profoundly deep bonds and the often fractious, sometimes blind, efforts of the Founding Fathers–re-examined here as Founding Brothers–to realize strikingly different visions of America. During their own time, and even more so in ours, the Founding Fathers were perceived as demigods no more tainted than marble statues by the stain of imperfect humanity. Ellis’s penetrating analysis of six fascinating historical episodes, including Hamilton and Burr’s deadly duel, Washington’s Farewell Address, and the correspondence between Jefferson and Adams, brings these statues to life and their visions into focus.