Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation by Ray Raphael
The New Press, £22.99
Oh! America, what is being done in your name? As the armies of the United States march across the world lurching from one crisis area to another in the guise of international peace keepers, it is perhaps timely to remember why the country came into being in the first place. And time, too, to ask whether the ideas and ideals of the United States of America of Barack Obama are the same as the United States of George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson et al? Well, readers of Ray Raphael’s book can draw their own conclusions because that would be a fascinating epilogue to this new history of America’s founding fathers (and a handful of mothers).
Raphael assumes that we already know a great deal about the likes of George Washington and his ilk, as well as radicals such as Tom Paine, but that we know very little about some of their contemporaries who played an equally significant role in the break with Britain. A mix of the élite of the merchant class and the ordinary men and women who were third or fourth generation settlers, the story of these founders is woven into what is really a standard albeit intensely detailed history of the period leading up to the Declaration of Independence, the war with the British that followed, and the machinations that led to the drafting of a new constitution and the birth of democracy.
Interestingly, for those who study the philosophy of history, Raphael says his standpoint is, as all history is, a revisionist view. He argues this in the final couple of paragraphs on the basis that he has looked at “new” evidence. The originality he claims actually relates to diaries, papers and records that have in fact been around for a long time but no one has really put into other histories, especially that of the prodigious output of the poet, dramatist and scribe Mercy Otis Warren. A true revisionist view surely means that fresh evidence newly unearthed changes our way of looking at our past. And his book doesn’t really do that.
But he does cover all the classic staging posts. The march to the west, drawing the indigenous Indians into wars, and negotiations over land is here. So, too, are the simultaneous wars fought with the French. The arguments with the British government over taxes, representation and accountability leading to the infamous Boston Tea Party are all detailed. The military struggle with the British Army and its German mercenaries unfolds as does the negotiated settlement and the arguments over the drawing up of the constitution and its various amendments, still enshrined in the USA of today.
So what is new? Well, the roles of people like the financier and entrepreneur Robert Morris, a capitalist in other words, the blacksmith turned military adventurer Timothy Bigelow, and the young and enthusiastic boy turned hardened soldier Joseph Plumb Martin are all put before us. But, in truth, they add little to the story apart from embellishing what we already know.
There is one character, the radical democratic enthusiast Dr Thomas Young, who “fomented rebellion in seven states” and endeared himself by his views which we would now call of the left. Much of what he called for in terms of the democratic accountability of the new government and constitution was, implicit in Raphael’s study, off the wall before independence but became his legacy after his all too early death.
What had maybe hitherto gone unrecognised was the role of the tavern in the development of revolutionary politics. As each town and state started to awaken to the iniquitous rules and riles of the British, the leading lights seemed to hold a public meeting – and then dash off to the nearest pub. “Forward to the barricades, mine’s a tankard of your finest foaming ale” wasn’t exactly the battle cry – but it might as well have been.
But in being critical it’s unfair to overlook the painstaking work that Raphael has put into this book. It is an unashamedly American take on the rise of the country with no real balance or interest in why the British behaved as they did. A little more balance would have been good, if only to understand more of what really motivated these founders.
Because the story of the founding of America is so important to our understanding of why the modern US behaves as it does. That we have to draw that understanding out for ourselves is, perhaps, no bad thing.
Raphael has made a major contribution to modern history. His book is well written, highly readable, and at times exciting and pretty pacy. Ultimately it does what it says it will do – it tells the story of the founders of America. As such it is a valuable resource. But it could have been so much more…
Andrew Dodgshon
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