{"id":62739,"date":"2017-08-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=62739"},"modified":"2017-08-25T05:37:13","modified_gmt":"2017-08-25T09:37:13","slug":"larb-monica-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=62739","title":{"rendered":"(LARB) Monica Rico–How Fragile We Were: Why the United States Almost Failed Early"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Carol Berkin\u2019s new book]…A Sovereign People<\/em>\u00a0prods us to remember that the early statesmen of this country sometimes were less like the formal tableau in John Trumbull\u2019s famous painting of the signing of the Declaration (a painting produced many years after the event itself) and more like a quarrelsome neighborhood association, full of old grievances and new disagreements over any number of issues.<\/p>\n

Some of the best passages in the book explore the weaknesses that beset these men: Adams\u2019s injured vanity, Hamilton\u2019s impatience with anyone not as smart as he, Jefferson\u2019s tendency to overlook hard truths about his idealized French revolutionaries. We get less well-known figures as well, such as a young John Marshall, bright but with \u201clax, lounging manners,\u201d according to his cousin Jefferson. Berkin\u2019s description of the high-maintenance Elbridge Gerry, a man \u201cwhose mission in life often seemed to be alienating others,\u201d will help readers understand why Adams\u2019s appointment of Gerry to represent the United States in France in 1798 was one of the decisions that doomed that particular diplomatic errand to failure.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the accidental hero of the story, if there is one, is John Adams, whose decision to seek yet another negotiation with France at the end of 1798 made a mockery of his administration\u2019s drive toward war preparation. In stepping back from the brink, Adams opened the way for a new treaty with France that recognized American neutrality, but he also doomed his party and his own career. Berkin portrays a man who knew he lacked the glitter of Hamilton and the patrician dignity of Washington, but who knew, at the end, who he was: \u201ca statesman rather than a politician. He would act in the best interests of the nation, not the narrow interests of the party.\u201d We can only hope that we have such leaders in our own time. We do not know where the story ends.<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Carol Berkin\u2019s new book]…A Sovereign People\u00a0prods us to remember that the early statesmen of this country sometimes were less like the formal tableau in John Trumbull\u2019s famous painting of the signing of the Declaration (a painting produced many years after…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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