An adaptation of Joseph Ellis's Pulitzer Prize-winning tome, this documentary travels back to the Revolutionary War era. It argues that seven founding fathers of the United States - George Washington, James Madison, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams -- didn't have one set of "self-evident" truths, but actually a series of complex and diverse visions of the country that needed to be reconciled and woven together to form a cohesive whole. This, the filmmakers suggests, happened via six key events: George Washington's farewell address to the country, Burr and Hamilton's duel, Ben Franklin's order for an end to slavery, the final reconciliation between Jefferson and Adams, a secret dinner that determined where the capital would be situated, and John Adams's election to the presidency. All are profiled here.
