Publishers Weekly
★ 09/21/2020
Pulitzer Prize winner Ricks (Churchill and Orwell) delivers an immersive and enlightening look at how the classical educations of the first four U.S. presidents (George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison) influenced their thinking and the shape of American democracy. According to Ricks, the evolution of Washington’s military strategy during the Revolutionary War drew from Roman general Fabius’s defeat of Hannibal in 203 BCE. Ricks also documents classical antecedents in the construction of the Constitution and Thomas Jefferson’s architectural plans for government buildings in Washington, D.C., and analyzes 18th-century opinions on the ancient world expressed in Robert Dodsley’s textbook The Preceptor (“a blueprint for the Declaration of Independence”) and Joseph Addison’s play Cato (which inspired Patrick Henry’s famous line “Give me liberty—or give me death”). The Amphictyonic League, a confederation of early Greek cities, is partly responsible for the U.S. Senate’s equalized representation regardless of state size, Ricks points out. The book closes with suggested steps for returning America “to the course intended by the Revolutionary generation,” including “don’t panic,” “re-focus on the public good,” and “wake up Congress.” With incisive selections from primary sources and astute cultural and political analysis, this lucid and entertaining account is a valuable take on American history. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
"Ricks knocks it out of the park with this jewel of a book. On every page I learned something new. Read it every night if you want to restore your faith in our country." — James Mattis, General, U.S. Marines (ret.) & 26th Secretary of Defense
“One of my favorite works of history in a very long time. I grew up revering Jefferson. I found him loathsome here, but still recognize that like Churchill in 1940, a flawed man can move future events dramatically. Madison’s reach was remarkable. Poor Adams remained as miserable as I had always viewed him. But Washington was my revelation here. I have never been able to put flesh on those bones, but Ricks has done it.” — Joe Scarborough
“[An] extraordinarily timely book…If classical culture helped the new nation coalesce, what serves the same function today? Money? Pop culture? Political activism? And what about virtue? Does it still have a place in our society, and if so how might one define it? Interestingly, Mr. Ricks points out that for the Revolutionary generation, ‘silent virtue almost always would be valued more than loud eloquence.’ Of course the opposite is true now.” — Wall Street Journal
“A rich compendium of the ancient wisdom that Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison believed they were gleaning from Aristotle or Tacitus, and the formation of 'classically shaped behavior' in the early republic…Antiquity mattered, Ricks suggests, because it formed the intellectual foundation for the revolutionary generation. Knowing the source of the values they claimed to espouse and the historical comparisons they took as obvious, we can know more about the founders themselves — and perhaps something of how the country we now have measures up to the one they envisioned.” — Washington Post
“Ricks masterfully documents how examples of city states like Athens and the Roman Republic informed the four aforementioned Founding Fathers and their fellow travelers… So the question lurking in the shadows throughout this engaging political peregrination is the one the author asks in the epilogue: ‘Did the founders anticipate Donald Trump?’… Ricks points out that even iconic political figures oftentimes behaved in disturbing ways, just like politicians do today....It seems the document was eminently more perfect than the men who created it.” — USA Today
“In this instructive new book, [Ricks] offers a judicious account of the equivocal inheritance left to modern Americans by their 18th-century forebears…[He] urges Americans to fix their government so that it protects citizens from the inevitable lapses of a fallible people and, perhaps, even more fallible leaders.” — New York Times Book Review
"First Principles is a fascinating and erudite look at how Greek and Roman writers influenced members of the Founding Generation. From the Harvard-educated John Adams to the largely self-taught George Washington, the most well-known of American Revolutionaries, turned statesmen, looked to the classical world to answer critical questions about the nature of power and the nature of government." — Annette Gordon-Reed, the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello
"Ricks knows his subject well, and, equally important, he writes about it lucidly." — Gordon Wood, University Professor at Brown University, and author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution and Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic
"Thomas Ricks’s deeply personal, patriotic quest to recover and renew the principles that animated America’s founders testifies eloquently to the value of historical understanding in these troubled times. Steeped in the classics, the founders could not have imagined our world and we are now, more than ever, acutely conscious of their failure to engage with the fundamental problem of racial slavery and its enduring legacies. But Ricks offers us a timely reminder of what the first four, nation-making presidents could imagine and did struggle to achieve." — Peter S. Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Professor of History, Emeritus, University of Virginia, coauthor of Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination
"An immersive and enlightening look at how the classical educations of the first four U.S. presidents (George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison) influenced their thinking and the shape of American democracy....With incisive selections from primary sources and astute cultural and political analysis, this lucid and entertaining account is a valuable take on American history." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Ricks does something quite remarkable: he takes a seemingly academic topic—the Greco-Roman education of the Founding Fathers—and makes it resonate with grand relevance....Offering a look at the Founders rarely glimpsed, Ricks successfully argues that America needs to rediscover its classical roots." — Library Journal (starred review)
“In First Principles, Ricks provides us the reading list we would have to undertake to get close to the Framers’ worldview. Ricks is not squeamish about their collective blindness to the evil of slavery, or its cruelty and brutality….What the flawed Framers gifted us was a blueprint of genius that we have since improved upon greatly because of Lincoln, the suffragists, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the many other civil rights leaders of that era….Ricks reminds us of our purpose.” — Hugh Hewitt, Washington Post
"The Pulitzer Prize-winning author offers a new interpretation of the individuals who shaped our constitution and government. You’ll find new insights into the past from the first page to the last." — Detroit Free Press
"In First Principles, a lively and accessible synthesis of the work of generations of historians and his own reading of the letters, speeches, and pamphlets of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, Ricks assesses the influence of classical public philosophy and practice on politics in America in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries — and draws conclusions about the country we have become." — Psychology Today
“An exploration of the major influences of America’s first four presidents…[In 2016 Ricks asked,] ‘What kind of nation do we now have? Is this what was designed or intended by the nation’s founders?’…[He] reassures readers that the durable Constitutional order can handle a Donald Trump, and he concludes with 10 strategies for putting the nation back on course…Penetrating history with a modest dollop of optimism." — Kirkus Reviews
“Well informed, gracefully written and brimming with contemporary relevance.” — Bookreporter.com
“First Principles stands alone as an important work on the Revolutionary period.” — Journal of the American Revolution
Annette Gordon-Reed
"First Principles is a fascinating and erudite look at how Greek and Roman writers influenced members of the Founding Generation. From the Harvard-educated John Adams to the largely self-taught George Washington, the most well-known of American Revolutionaries, turned statesmen, looked to the classical world to answer critical questions about the nature of power and the nature of government."
Gordon Wood
"Ricks knows his subject well, and, equally important, he writes about it lucidly."
Wall Street Journal
[An] extraordinarily timely book…If classical culture helped the new nation coalesce, what serves the same function today? Money? Pop culture? Political activism? And what about virtue? Does it still have a place in our society, and if so how might one define it? Interestingly, Mr. Ricks points out that for the Revolutionary generation, ‘silent virtue almost always would be valued more than loud eloquence.’ Of course the opposite is true now.
James Mattis
"Ricks knocks it out of the park with this jewel of a book. On every page I learned something new. Read it every night if you want to restore your faith in our country."
New York Times Book Review
In this instructive new book, [Ricks] offers a judicious account of the equivocal inheritance left to modern Americans by their 18th-century forebears…[He] urges Americans to fix their government so that it protects citizens from the inevitable lapses of a fallible people and, perhaps, even more fallible leaders.
Joe Scarborough
One of my favorite works of history in a very long time. I grew up revering Jefferson. I found him loathsome here, but still recognize that like Churchill in 1940, a flawed man can move future events dramatically. Madison’s reach was remarkable. Poor Adams remained as miserable as I had always viewed him. But Washington was my revelation here. I have never been able to put flesh on those bones, but Ricks has done it.
Washington Post
A rich compendium of the ancient wisdom that Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison believed they were gleaning from Aristotle or Tacitus, and the formation of 'classically shaped behavior' in the early republic…Antiquity mattered, Ricks suggests, because it formed the intellectual foundation for the revolutionary generation. Knowing the source of the values they claimed to espouse and the historical comparisons they took as obvious, we can know more about the founders themselves — and perhaps something of how the country we now have measures up to the one they envisioned.
Peter S. Onuf
"Thomas Ricks’s deeply personal, patriotic quest to recover and renew the principles that animated America’s founders testifies eloquently to the value of historical understanding in these troubled times. Steeped in the classics, the founders could not have imagined our world and we are now, more than ever, acutely conscious of their failure to engage with the fundamental problem of racial slavery and its enduring legacies. But Ricks offers us a timely reminder of what the first four, nation-making presidents could imagine and did struggle to achieve."
USA Today
Ricks masterfully documents how examples of city states like Athens and the Roman Republic informed the four aforementioned Founding Fathers and their fellow travelers… So the question lurking in the shadows throughout this engaging political peregrination is the one the author asks in the epilogue: ‘Did the founders anticipate Donald Trump?’… Ricks points out that even iconic political figures oftentimes behaved in disturbing ways, just like politicians do today....It seems the document was eminently more perfect than the men who created it.
Wall Street Journal
[An] extraordinarily timely book…If classical culture helped the new nation coalesce, what serves the same function today? Money? Pop culture? Political activism? And what about virtue? Does it still have a place in our society, and if so how might one define it? Interestingly, Mr. Ricks points out that for the Revolutionary generation, ‘silent virtue almost always would be valued more than loud eloquence.’ Of course the opposite is true now.
Washington Post
A rich compendium of the ancient wisdom that Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison believed they were gleaning from Aristotle or Tacitus, and the formation of 'classically shaped behavior' in the early republic…Antiquity mattered, Ricks suggests, because it formed the intellectual foundation for the revolutionary generation. Knowing the source of the values they claimed to espouse and the historical comparisons they took as obvious, we can know more about the founders themselves — and perhaps something of how the country we now have measures up to the one they envisioned.
USA Today
Ricks masterfully documents how examples of city states like Athens and the Roman Republic informed the four aforementioned Founding Fathers and their fellow travelers… So the question lurking in the shadows throughout this engaging political peregrination is the one the author asks in the epilogue: ‘Did the founders anticipate Donald Trump?’… Ricks points out that even iconic political figures oftentimes behaved in disturbing ways, just like politicians do today....It seems the document was eminently more perfect than the men who created it.
Hugh Hewitt
In First Principles, Ricks provides us the reading list we would have to undertake to get close to the Framers’ worldview. Ricks is not squeamish about their collective blindness to the evil of slavery, or its cruelty and brutality….What the flawed Framers gifted us was a blueprint of genius that we have since improved upon greatly because of Lincoln, the suffragists, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the many other civil rights leaders of that era….Ricks reminds us of our purpose.
Psychology Today
"In First Principles, a lively and accessible synthesis of the work of generations of historians and his own reading of the letters, speeches, and pamphlets of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, Ricks assesses the influence of classical public philosophy and practice on politics in America in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries — and draws conclusions about the country we have become."
Bookreporter.com
Well informed, gracefully written and brimming with contemporary relevance.
Detroit Free Press
"The Pulitzer Prize-winning author offers a new interpretation of the individuals who shaped our constitution and government. You’ll find new insights into the past from the first page to the last."
Journal of the American Revolution
First Principles stands alone as an important work on the Revolutionary period.
Los Angeles Times
Readers of this book will realize, if they needed reminding, that the struggle to preserve and tell the truth is a very long game.”
San Francisco Chronicle
An elegantly written celebration of two men who faced an existential crisis to their way of life with moral courage — and demonstrated that an individual can make a difference.
Library Journal
★ 10/01/2020
Ricks (Churchill and Orwell) does something quite remarkable: he takes a seemingly academic topic—the Greco-Roman education of the Founding Fathers—and makes it resonate with grand relevance. Readers get to meet young Jefferson, the Epicurean romantic; James Madison, a free-thinking student at Princeton; and John Adams, the Ciceronian. The education of the Founders, so often relegated to a sentence or two, is the theme of this book, which makes it unique among the plethora of works on them. The Roman Republic, and the lessons of its fall, were prime themes in the student lives of the Founding Fathers. Colonial collegiate politics, including the divergence between radical Princeton and conservative King's College (Columbia) is discussed. Scotland's contribution to the American Revolution is also highlighted. Ricks further explores the descent of classicism in the new republic, and explains Aristotle's thoughts on the concept of "natural slavery." The author comments on current politics in the beginning and end of the work, which, on the one hand, apply to classical principles discussed within, but on the other may date this edition in a few years. VERDICT Offering a look at the Founders rarely glimpsed, Ricks successfully argues that America needs to rediscover its classical roots.—Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA
Kirkus Reviews
2020-10-10
An exploration of the major influences of America’s first four presidents.
“What just happened?” That was the question that Pulitzer Prize winner Ricks—along with tens of millions of Americans—asked after the 2016 presidential election. The author also asked, “What kind of nation do we now have? Is this what was designed or intended by the nation’s founders?” He proceeded to study their writings, which turned out to pay some attention to the British Constitution and French Enlightenment but more to the ancients. According to Ricks, George Washington soaked up classic Roman values of honor, self-control, and, above all, “virtue,” by which the Romans “meant public-mindedness.” John Adams considered himself a modern Cicero, raging against tyranny. Jefferson preferred the Greeks, a more philosophical culture but also (unlike Rome) a fractious confederation during its golden age. This may explain why he, unlike his colleagues, felt no great need for the Constitution. The scholarly Madison spent years in a methodical study of ancient political systems, enabling him to steer the Constitutional Convention through sheer expertise. Ricks admits that by the time Washington assumed office in 1789, the classical model was running out of steam. Both he and Adams raged against “faction,” an evil during the Roman Republic. Jefferson was angry, as well, but proceeded to found the first political party. No one foresaw the Industrial Revolution, the arrival of democracy (“mob rule” to the Founding Fathers), or a civil war, but the U.S. adapted. However, Ricks emphasizes that the Founders’ reluctance to confront slavery embedded a racism that continues to poison the American political system. The author reassures readers that the durable Constitutional order can handle a Donald Trump, and he concludes with 10 strategies for putting the nation back on course. All are admirable, although several—e.g., campaign finance reform, congressional reform, mutual tolerance—regularly fail in practice.
Penetrating history with a modest dollop of optimism.
