RaveThe Washington PostThis magisterial double biography recounts not only the lives of these two greatest founders but also the creation of the republic. It describes the world’s first successful democratic revolution and the founding of the first non-monarchical republic. It has nothing of military strategies or engagements or war heroes; it is a book about ideas as represented by two philosophical statesmen, and it makes political history and philosophy exciting … The author provides a magnificent account of the thinking that went into the creation of individual state constitutions after independence was declared; he reveals how the states’ experiences aided the creation of a national government built on three branches … As the two founders agreed in their final correspondence, no one but they could ever write an accurate history of their times. Wood comes close.
