American Creation: triumphs and tragedies at the founding of the Republic

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. Another fine work of accessible social history from the author and Founding Brothers and His Excellency, the author being winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Fine-looking, structurally sound hardcover, little discernible wear, bright interior, unmarked. Bright and shiny dust jacket, illustrated, little worn. "From Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian Joseph J. Ellis, the unexpected story of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew. We all know the famous opening phrase of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this Continent a new Nation.' The truth is different. In 1776, thirteen American colonies declared themselves independent states that only temporarily joined forces in order to defeat the British. Once victorious, they planned to go their separate ways. The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor a political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal government with power over their autonomy as states. The Quartet is the story of this second American founding and of the men most responsible - George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madision," from the publisher's blurb. Volume contains scholarly apparatus in the form of, e.g., notes, index, and bibliography. xi [2], 3-283 [4] pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.