The Founding Fathers

 

So my oldest daughter, Little One, bought me a couple books this Christmas, books on “a historical era that I know you haven’t read before.” And what she said was true. She gifted me one of the Very Short Introduction books, The Founding Fathers and a non-VSI but still very short book, The Jacksonian Era. Roughly the first 50 years of the existence of the United States. She was correct. Over the past dozen years I’ve read hundreds of pages on the Civil War, World War II, and the Napoleonic Wars, but this section of history I haven’t plumbed since taking Brother Lawrence’s US History class sophomore year of high school in the early 80s.

 

Well, I just finished the VSI The Founding Fathers, and I am fascinated. Now, not fascinated enough to devote additional time and effort to the subject – unless I was either a) a lawyer, b) a politician, c) a pundit, or d) financially independent. Other more pressing issues are, er, pressing upon me. But it was an extremely interesting diversion over a couple of hours over a couple of days.

 

The book was not too in depth – it couldn’t be, being a Very Short Introduction book, but the subject itself is difficult to summarize. That’s what struck me so hard reading this. The magnitude of all that falls under the umbrella term, the founding fathers. I almost wish I read this book thirty or forty years ago. Indeed, any young person looking to pursue a career in either a, b, or c, above, should spend many months delving this subject. One image I had was the book covering the first three or four inches of Mount Everest.

 

What do I mean?

 

Immediately my mind went to making lists.

 

If one wanted to truly study the Founding Fathers, one would have to pursue many branches. So a second image presented itself to me: a massive tree with a big fat trunk in which someone looking like Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer etched “The Founding Fathers” with a pocketknife. And what follows? This –

 

Thick, twisting roots burrowing deep in the ground. Some labeled “The Roman Republic” and “Greek Democracy”, others “Classical Literature” and “Greek” and “Roman” languages. A larger, stronger segment would be called “The Enlightenment,” with offshoots titled “Locke” and “Hume.” The confluence of all these roots grew to push the beliefs and philosophies of the Founding Fathers up through the ground into the sunlight.

 

There would be numerous branches reaching upward, spreading out thickly in smaller and smaller subdivisions. The main branch, erupting immediately from the trunk, would be, of course, “The Constitution.” Then, in no particular order but grouped according to genus, many other limbs would sprout, limbs with names such as:

 

   - The Fathers themselves: Writings, Autobiographies, Biographies

 

   - The History of the Founding of America: The Colonies, the Deteriorating Relation with England, the Continental Congress(es), the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the Articles of Confederation

 

   - The first presidencies

 

   - Federalism versus Republicanism

 

   - Originalist Interpretation versus the “Living Document”

 

   - The Bill of Rights, further Amendments and the Amendment Process

 

   - The growth and development of the federal government: The Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch

 

   - The inner workings of government, the life cycle of bills and laws, etc., sausage-factory analogy notwithstanding

 

   - Legal challenges faced by the early American government, especially the three-fifths compromise, Marbury v. Madison and the Dred Scott decision

 

   - The faults or shortfalls, perceived or not, of the Constitution at its creation and over its history

 

One could spend four solid years, I believe, prepping himself in this vast, fruitful vineyard, and indeed many do, I suppose, those of whom aspire to be political science majors. Were I to have read this book in high school, and was more of an ENTP than an INTP, I’d definitely immerse myself in a full three-months of summertime excavation before taking up studies in the American political process, as first envisioned and shaped by the Founding Fathers.