The Great Contradiction

“How did the founders manage to lose all sight of their revolutionary ideals when it came to African and Native Americans? ‘Prejudice, avarice, and pusillanimity’ was the assessment of one 1782 idealist, a formula Joseph J. Ellis unpacks here with his trademark clarity. Cutting through mist and myth, Ellis probes—on eighteenth-century rather than twenty-first-century terms—the questions that reduced thinkers like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson to blithering incoherence. An elegant, concise volume that illuminates the obfuscations, misunderstandings, and hypocrisy that continue to sabotage us today.” —Stacy Schiff, author of The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

“As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Joseph J. Ellis has given us a necessary corrective to any would-be triumphant narratives of America’s founding. Fluidly written and cogently argued, The Great Contradiction puts the failures to abolish slavery and to avoid Indian removal at the heart of the country’s creation story—failures that have shaped us to this day.” —Annette Gordon-Reed, author of On Juneteenth

“The American Revolution is often encrusted with the barnacles of sentimentality and nostalgia; we see only what we want to see. Joseph Ellis has masterfully widened our lens to tell a deeper, more complex, more accurate story of our founding. The great figures and ideals are still there, but now they are accompanied by the stories of those left out of the prize of liberty and freedom.” —Ken Burns, award-winning filmmaker

“Deals honestly with America’s original sins without slandering the country or diminishing its other glories . . . History remains much too complex to divide into narrative or political sides. It is, however, possible to divide the subject into partisans of good and bad writing. So if you are going to take a side, join Mr. Ellis’s.” —Nicholas Clairmont, The Wall Street Journal

“[A] concise but well-sourced and lucid account. . . . In a work that is both clear-eyed and sympathetic, Ellis . . . thoughtfully fulfills his mission. In doing so, he enables us to see, and perhaps identify with, America’s founders in their full humanity. Despite all their undeniable achievements, the legacies of these leaders must be weighed against their inability to rise above their circumstances and do what they knew to be right.” —Harvey Freedenberg, Book Reporter

“An outstanding read. . . . An excellent book worth reading by anyone interested in early American history.” —Richard Weigel, Bowling Green Daily News

“[Readers] are apt to come away with a new appreciation of the limits on even our most powerful historical leaders’ ability to shape events even in their own day, let alone in ours.” —Kevin R. C. Gutzman, Law & Liberty

“The distinguished historian examines America’s two original, foundational sins. . . . A provocative, revisionist view of the first years of the Republic.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Incisive. . . . A robustly complex portrait of the imperfect but dedicated shepherds of the first modern republic.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This compelling history emphasizes aspects of the time that are not often illuminated and draws on rarely cited sources. . . . [An] insightful, noteworthy, and fresh history of the nation’s founding.” —Booklist (starred review)

“As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, this volume offers an important and necessary perspective on the fight for American independence. . . . By examining the writing and revisions of the documents establishing this nation and their impact on enslavement and the Indigenous population, readers gain a perspective into a more nuanced version of U.S. history than what is usually taught.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Ellis wisely advises us to deal with realities and not mythology, writing frankly and forcefully. . . . Ellis is one of our country’s great historians. His books on early American history are national treasures. As the semiquincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approaches, The Great Contradiction can help us better understand what we are celebrating—and at whose expense.” —Roger Bishop, BookPage (starred review)