The Founders' Fortunes

September 1, 2021

In Lincoln and the Fight for Peace, CNN anchor Avlon addresses President Abraham Lincoln's conciliatory vision regarding the post-Civil War era, aiming to show how it influenced activists from Nelson Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. (75,000-copy first printing). The New York Times best-selling Baime's White Lies profiles Black civil rights activist Walter F. White, who figured largely in the Harlem Renaissance and the NAACP while leading a dual life as a reporter investigating racial violence in the South because he could pass for white (40,000-copy first printing). Chapin, The President's Man, here recalls his years as personal aide, special assistant, and finally deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon as the 50th anniversary of Watergate looms. In African Founders, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fischer shows that enslaved Africans brought with them skills ranging from animal husbandry to ethics that profoundly shaped colonial and early U.S. society (100,000-copy first printing). A conservative gay reporter who has received awards from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, Kirchick dug through multitudinous declassified documents and interviewed over 100 people to write Secret City, which profiles the impact of the LGBTQ+ community on Washington, DC, politics since Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. A multi-award-winning journalist and professor emeritus at Champlain College, Randall intends to show that not only were The Founders' Fortunes pledged in support of the Revolutionary War but that concerns about their fortunes helped prompt it. A professor of art crime at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Thompson is an acknowledged expert in the national debate surrounding Smashing Statues--should controversial public monuments be pulled down or allowed to stand? Journalist/author Thompson ( Kickflip Boys) uses newly released records to tell the story of Patrick and Bridget Kennedy, who fled Ireland's Great Famine for Boston, MA, and became The First Kennedys, founders of a political dynasty.

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December 13, 2021
Historian Randall (Unshackling America) explores in this intriguing yet unsatisfying survey how the founding fathers’ personal financial circumstances helped chart the course of the American Revolution. Delving into the business interests and economic considerations of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and others, Randall notes that almost all of Connecticut’s delegation to the Second Continental Congress in 1775 were land speculators, motivated in no small part by King George III’s decree barring them from profiting from the fur trade. He also points out that the resistance movement in Massachusetts was bankrolled by John Hancock, whose merchant empire was threatened by English taxes, and that Benjamin Franklin, contrary to his “Poor Richard” persona, became wealthy by investing the profits from his printing and publishing business in Philadelphia real estate. Unfortunately, Randall downplays other political and cultural factors behind the revolution and risks oversimplifying the motivations and considerations of his subjects, as when he suggests that George Washington’s diminished financial circumstances were behind his acceptance of the presidency and its annual salary of $25,000 ($750,000 in today’s money). Readers will find Tom Shachtman’s The Founding Fortunes to be a more thoughtful and nuanced treatment of the same subject. Agent: Don Fehr, Trident Media Group.

Starred review from February 1, 2022
In his twelfth book, colonial history scholar and former award-winning reporter Randall re-examines progressive historian Charles Beard's hypothesis that economic forces played an outsized role in shaping the U.S. Constitution. Using sources not available to Beard, Randall shows how the Founders' finances influenced their economic and political decisions, from the French and Indian War to John Adams' presidency. Randall asserts that America's richest colonials were not a monolithic class, describing shifting alliances and rivalries during colonial times and the early days of the republic. Despite substantial riches, the fortunes of many Founders tanked or nearly tanked, Randall reveals, after the revolution. If the revolution had failed, he observes, the British would have hanged, drawn, and quartered the Founders as traitors. The book's strong organization, the conversion of colonial financial sums to modern dollars, and well-paced and lively writing make for an outstanding work of American history and a joy to read. Alongside the financial history, Randall's account of the Founders' world is compelling and highly readable, while his description of French aid during the revolution suggests that FDR got the Lend-Lease idea from Louis XVI. Randall's dry wit drives the true stories of French police searching Ben Franklin's underwear and Sam Adams' beer career.

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January 1, 2022

Randall, award-winning biographer of several Founding Fathers, re-assesses Charles Beard's argument regarding the economic objectives of wealthy elites in designing the Constitution. Drawing on material unavailable to Beard, Randall examines the financial successes, failures, and motives of key figures, all prominent businessmen, whose monetary health was affected by British mercantile policies. Most were involved in risky land speculation and other schemes to expand their wealth, and fortunes fluctuated significantly pre- and post-Revolution, leaving many of them in debt. The war resulted in grave financial hardships manifested in increased trade restrictions, lack of a dependable currency, conflicts and policy constraints in the "West," unemployment, rioting, discord among the states, and lack of capital and credit. The Constitution's defenders argued that only a stable, unified national government could address grievous threats to political and economic independence. In an engaging style, Randall skillfully compiles material from extensive research regarding the compelling impact of the Founders' personal financial interests on their political decision-making--from rebelling against Britain through ratifying the Constitution--but contends that they were not driven exclusively by personal gain. VERDICT This accessible, concise, yet informative work would benefit from a conclusion summarizing Randall's observations. It will appeal to general readers and academics.--Margaret Kappanadze

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2021
A detailed look at the economic roots of the American Revolution and the early republic. Randall, the prizewinning expert on the founding era, focuses on a handful of key figures, including Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, John and Samuel Adams, and Robert Morris, perhaps the wealthiest American of his time. For many of them, especially Franklin and Washington, the possibility of acquiring large tracts of unclaimed land to the west of the original Colonies was a key to building wealth. However, British interests saw the possible settlement of the interior as a loosening of the mother country's economic and political control, and therein lay the seeds of conflict. Other policies--e.g., requirements that goods shipped to England be carried by English ships with English crews--also stifled Colonial enterprise. With the accession of King George III in 1761, a determination emerged to make the Colonies more profitable so as to pay off the massive bills the empire faced after the Seven Years' War with France. Randall deftly follows these currents as they played out in the lives of the key founders, with numerous ups and downs for each of them during the war. Most felt the impact of post-Revolutionary inflation and other economic ills that led to the creation of the Constitution, largely at the hands of Hamilton, the economic mastermind of the era. Randall also discusses the impact of slavery on the decisions of the founders--notably, the infamous three-fifths clause, which "assured that slaveholding states would control the House of Representatives." Like Randall's previous works, especially Unshackling America, the narrative is well written and packed with human interest, providing a valuable update to the Revolutionary-era history many readers may not have studied since high school. A vivid history of how America paid for its Revolution and why the Founding Fathers made the decisions they did.

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