I enjoyed this book. I picked it up because in my American History class the professor had many quotes in his notes about it. I first went to the library and saw that this was also a PBS special and checked it out. The PBS special was phenomenal. If you liked this book or think you would definitely see the PBS special. After viewing it I knew for sure I wanted to read the book. The amount of personal and daily details was nice. The reader gets to "feel" the humanity of these heroic characters in our country's history. What was special was to read that they knew if they lost - they would have been killed as traitors and still decided for the good of the people the risk needed to be taken to lead this new nation to freedom.

I found this book to be quite enjoyable. Many other reviewers have given it low ratings for the large vocabulary used by the author, describing it as "boring". While some chapters are hard to describe as anything but that, most are genuinely enjoyable. It does require a large vocabulary and good grasp of American History, especially early American History, and so is most suited to the AP or college student.

Excellent look into the United States during it's most defining years. Although the author does fill some pages with repetitiveness, he provides an indepth look into the fathers of our nation.

I am 16 and have just finished my AP U.S. History class. I found the book highly entertaining, and though quite scholarly, Ellis wrote with a subtle familiarity that made the book easier to read, and thoroughly enjoyable. It was a needed supplement to what textbooks left out about the people and personalities behind the faces.

I'm not done with this book but i can definitely agree with almost everyone here. This book can be really REALLY boring at parts, but the more you just change the big pompous looking words to words you can relate to, the better the book gets. I've always thought that u.s. history wasn't the most intriguing subject at school, but this book shows mainly the vulnerability of America as a country in its infancy. overall I think the book could have been made a little more user-friendly, and those who could understand this book without a dictionary open next to them probably know this information already. its a good book, but probably not meant for most high school students. it just takes a little work to find the real meaning of the chapter through all the unnecessary words.

What the hell Ellis? He is so defensive about Adams and blames Abigail and Jefferson for all his short comings. He forgets that Adams supported the 'bad" decisions. This book was good as far as history content, but you have to remember that Ellis tends to embellish the truth.

founding brothers was boring yet interesting at the same time

I'm 16 too and I had it assigned over the summer for my AP US history class. I found some parts of it difficult to understand because I've never taken a US history class before (Class mess-ups at my last school), but I took notes during the chapters and when I came to something I didn't know, which helped so I could look it up later and understand it. It might not be the most interesting book the first time through but I think the second time might be better because I understand some more of what was going on.

Anyways, that's all folks