MAY 2015 - AudioFile
This audiobook details the events of one of the most forgotten decades in American history. The Revolution that came before the 1780s and the Constitution that came at the end of that decade are deservedly well chronicled—but what of the key era in between, which shaped who we are as a nation? Listen and marvel as we learn more about the genius of Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay. Robertson Dean’s deliberate, authoritative voice lends this work an air of importance that is both compelling and accessible. The potentially dry story is an adventure as told by the masterful Ellis, and Dean propels it forward with a lively pace and impeccable diction. It’s good history at its best. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly - Audio
08/31/2015
Here Ellis describes the hard-won journey undertaken by George Washington, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison to push the 13 colonies from pluribus to unum after the Revolutionary War. Dean, an experienced voice actor, narrates this satisfactory audio edition, exuding confidence with tone and dictation. His deep, rich bass lends a certain gravitas to the political machinations of the players involved. Yet Ellis’s narrative shows, in considerable detail, how tenuous, unlikely, and contested the quartet’s fight for a strong central government was, and Dean’s strong, stable reading lacks this air of uncertainty. The final hour of the audio book consists of Dean simply reading the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and the Constitution of the United States. A Knopf hardcover. (May)
Publishers Weekly
02/23/2015
Few can tell a historical tale as well as Ellis, as many readers will be aware from his eight previous studies of the Revolutionary War era (Revolutionary Summer, etc.). True to form, here he reviews this short but important time in America’s history through the eyes of its major figures—George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison—rather than offering an analysis of the weighty interval between the nation’s failed first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, and the ratification of the second (and successful) constitution and its first 10 amendments, which we now know as the Bill of Rights. Ellis’s approach employs deft characterizations and insights into these politicians and philosophers, who bested their opponents by “imposing their more expansive definition of the American Revolution” on the American people. With his usual skill, Ellis brings alive what otherwise might seem dry constitutional debates, with apt quotations and bright style. There may be equally solid surveys of “the second American Revolution,” a term Ellis borrows from other historians, but this one will be considered the standard work on its subject for years to come. It lacks the fresh interpretations and almost lyrical prose of Ellis’s previous books, but it’s a readable, authoritative work. Agent: Ike Williams; Kneerim, Williams & Bloom. (May)
From the Publisher
Historian Joseph Ellis masterfully illuminates the ‘untrodden’ path, as Washington put it, that led to that crucial stage of sewing up the elements of the new country. . . . Deeply insightful.” —New York Review of Books
“The dissenters—George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison—faced no less a task than redefining the meaning of the War for Independence in what amounted to a Second American Revolution. How they did so is the burden of the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis' The Quartet, an engaging reconsideration of the arduous path to the Constitution.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Customary, graceful prose. His portraits [show] his sure touch—highlighting Washington’s dignity, Hamilton’s energy, Madison’s learning and Jay’s diplomacy.” —New York Times Book Review
“The author is a sure-handed and entertaining guide through the thickets of argument, personality and ideology out of which the American nation emerged.” —The Economist
“Ellis shows the extraordinary capacity of these four leaders to understand the events, discuss them dispassionately, explain them to the American people, reach compromise, rise above pettiness and sacrifice personal wealth, power and popularity for the long-term public good. Given the rarity of these qualities today, Ellis’ book is a compelling reminder of the political virtues that created the American republic.” —Star Tribune
“Ellis lives and breathes the Founders, and he deploys his customary zip and trenchant scholarship in showing how four central figures—Washington, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison—conceived and promoted a new political framework built on the Constitution." —Newsday
“This is more than just a reinterpretation of a vital transition in our history; it is a reflection of new material from an episode that occurred two and a quarter centuries ago. . . . Having set forth the analysis, Ellis plunges into the narrative. His is an inviting voice and his story compelling, built around irresistible figures who, as the annual publishing lists amply display, retain their appeal in our own time.” —The Boston Globe
“The Quartet achieves its purpose, providing a clear explanation of how the real United States of America came into being.” —Miami Herald
“Ellis, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for Founding Brothers, reminds us that what Catherine Drinker Bowen has called the ‘Miracle at Philadelphia’ wasn’t destiny or ordained by God. It was created by perceptive men who understood human nature, history and politics and could foresee what this country could become should its people choose to have a strong central government.” —St. Louis Post Dispatch
“An author who breathes life into the dead and immediacy into the past, Ellis illuminates America’s rebirth, the men who made it possible and the framework they created. With rich research and intelligent interpretation, The Quartet burnishes his reputation as a writer, a thinker and a humanist.” —Richmond Times Dispatch
“Absorbing in its details, and convincing in its arguments, The Quartet is sure to appeal to history nerds and American politicos. As another election season approaches, a look back at the creation of the government, and the reasons why these founding fathers did what they did, is sure to be engrossing reading for anyone.” —Shelf Awareness
“A brilliant account of six years during which four Founding Fathers, ‘in disregard of public opinion, carried the American story in a new direction.’ In a virtuosic introduction, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Ellis maintains that Abraham Lincoln was wrong. In 1776—four score and seven years before 1863—our forefathers did not bring forth a new nation. . . . Ellis reminds us that the 1776 resolution declaring independence described 13 ‘free and independent states.’ Adopting the Constitution in 1789 created the United States, but no mobs rampaged in its favor. . . . Ellis delivers a convincing argument that it was a massive political transformation led by men with impeccable revolutionary credentials. . . . This is Ellis’ ninth consecutive history of the Revolutionary War era and yet another winner.” —Kirkus (starred review)
Library Journal
12/01/2014
Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for Founding Brothers and American Sphinx, respectively, Ellis moves beyond the Revolutionary years to the "second American Revolution," when the Colonies agreed to submit to a federal government. Four men stand out in his account—George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison.
MAY 2015 - AudioFile
This audiobook details the events of one of the most forgotten decades in American history. The Revolution that came before the 1780s and the Constitution that came at the end of that decade are deservedly well chronicled—but what of the key era in between, which shaped who we are as a nation? Listen and marvel as we learn more about the genius of Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay. Robertson Dean’s deliberate, authoritative voice lends this work an air of importance that is both compelling and accessible. The potentially dry story is an adventure as told by the masterful Ellis, and Dean propels it forward with a lively pace and impeccable diction. It’s good history at its best. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2014-12-21
A brilliant account of six years during which four Founding Fathers, "in disregard of public opinion, carried the American story in a new direction."In a virtuosic introduction, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Ellis (Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence, 2013, etc.) maintains that Abraham Lincoln was wrong. In 1776—four score and seven years before 1863—our forefathers did not bring forth a new nation. American revolutionaries hated distant governments, taxes, armies and inconvenient laws. Their Colonial governments seemed fine. Ellis reminds us that the 1776 resolution declaring independence described 13 "free and independent states." Adopting the Constitution in 1789 created the United States, but no mobs rampaged in its favor. In fact, writes the author, the "vast majority of citizens had no interest in American nationhood, indeed regarded the very idea of national government as irrelevant to their love lives." Ellis delivers a convincing argument that it was a massive political transformation led by men with impeccable revolutionary credentials. The indispensable man was George Washington, whose miserable eight years begging support for the Revolutionary army convinced him that America needed a central government. Its intellectual mastermind, James Madison, not only marshaled historical arguments, but performed political legerdemain in setting the Constitutional Convention agenda, orchestrating the debates and promoting ratification. Less tactful but equally brilliant, Alexander Hamilton's vision of American hegemony would provoke stubborn opposition, but during the 1780s, the people that mattered had no objection. An undeservedly neglected Founding Father (Thomas Jefferson became our first secretary of state only after he declined), John Jay was close to the others and a vigorous advocate of reform. This is Ellis' ninth consecutive history of the Revolutionary War era and yet another winner.
