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Heirs of the Founders by H. W. Brands
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Heirs of the Founders

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Heirs of the Founders by H. W. Brands
Paperback $22.00
Oct 01, 2019 | ISBN 9780525433903

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    Oct 01, 2019 | ISBN 9780525433903

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  • Nov 13, 2018 | ISBN 9780385542548

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  • Nov 13, 2018 | ISBN 9780525637998

    896 Minutes

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Praise

“Lively and learned. . . . Brands has produced a narrative that pulsates vigorously. . . . The three senators wear themselves out and all but die on the job, their respective causes still unresolved, their long public service having earned them fame, but not the political prize for which they most lusted: the presidency (though not for want of trying).”
Wall Street Journal
 
“A historical spellbinder. . . . A lively, vivid, and thoroughly researched account of a time when discord gripped the nation and wouldn’t let go.”
—Christian Science Monitor
 
“Brands’s easy prose and superior, simple organization makes this work an engrossing, entertaining, and educating read on issues important then that echo today in the modern debate on the limits of federal government power.”
New York Journal of Books

“They were called ‘The Great Triumvirate’—three senators whose rivalries, alliances, and work in the tumultuous battles of the 19th century profoundly influenced the course of American history. H. W. Brands tells the story of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster with verve and clarity, reminding us of a bygone age when giants truly walked the floor of the United States Senate.”
—Jon Meacham, author of The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
 
“H. W. Brands has brought us a searching and excellent account of three legendary Americans whose leadership and rivalries did so much to shape the period of our history between that of the Founders and the Civil War. Heirs of the Founders should remind those of our own time how important Clay, Calhoun, and Webster are to the nation we live in today.”
—Michael Beschloss, author of Presidents of War
 
“H. W. Brands, with his characteristic combination of sweep and eye for detail, tells the story—always exciting, often inspiring, ultimately tragic—of the titans who tried to guide the handiwork of the Founding Fathers through the turbulent first half of the nineteenth century. He weaves a cautionary tale for our own time of troubles.”
—Richard Brookhiser, author of John Marshall: The Man Who Made the Supreme Court

“Brands uses the life stories of three consequential early-19th-century American politicians—all with unfulfilled aspirations to become president—to show how tensions inherent in the founding fathers’ vision of the country led to the calamity of the Civil War. . . . This fascinating history illuminates rifts that still plague the country today.”
—Publishers Weekly

“An engrossing and revealing account of personal rivalries that played out on a national scale.”
—Booklist

Table Of Contents

Prologue: January 1850
 
Part One The Spirit of ’76
Part Two To Build a Nation
Part Three The People’s Government
Part Four A Deep Game
Part Five Temptations of Empire
Part Six The Fatal Compromise
 
Acknowledgments
Sources
Notes
Index

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