The Virginia Dynasty: 4 Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation

From a small expanse of land on the North American continent got here 4 of the nation’s first 5 presidents–a geographic dynasty whose members led a revolution, created a nation, and in the end modified the world. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe had been born, grew to manhood, and made their properties inside a sixty-mile circle east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mates and rivals, they led in securing independence, hammering out america Structure, and constructing a working republic. Appearing collectively, they doubled the territory of america. From their disputes got here American political events and the weaponizing of newspapers, the media of the day. On this elegantly conceived and insightful new e book from bestselling writer Lynne Cheney, the 4 Virginians aren’t marble icons however very important figures deeply intent on constructing a nation the place residents might be free.

Specializing in the intersecting roles these males performed as warriors, intellectuals, and statesmen, Cheney takes us again to an exhilarating time when the Enlightenment opened new vistas for humankind. However even because the Virginians superior liberty, equality, and human risk, they held folks in slavery and had been slaveholders after they died. Lives constructed on slavery had been incompatible with a free and simply society; their actions contradicted the very beliefs they espoused. They managed nonetheless to cross down these beliefs, they usually turned highly effective weapons for ending slavery. They impressed Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and right now undergird the freest nation on earth.

Taking full measure of strengths and failures within the private in addition to the political lives of the boys on the middle of this e book, Cheney affords a concise and unique exploration of how america got here to be.