What readers think of Founding Brothers, plus links to write your own review.

Hi im 14 and have to read this book for honors history...i dont know what eileen is talkin bout...maybe this would be a good book for the children o read if u want them to suffer and take a bullet to the head for even tryingto red this boring pointless novel....i already learned this in school and now i got to read it again out of school just to ruin my summer...give me a break..this is the worst book i have eve read and if u ever have to read this book try getting cliff notes...but good luck because the book is so boring that people cant make cliff notes for it because noone understands a wor ellis is saying....ellis probbly payed sum poor guy money to write the book for him s he didnt have to read it himself

i am taking A.P. U.S. history this year and we were assigned to read this book of sheer death. I love history, but this book makes me want to go and do math homework, it seems that Joe J. Ellis needs to prove how intelligent he is by writing in a style that is almost identical to iambic pantameter. It is pointless and has cost me a summer trying to figure out the thesis of this book that has wasted my time. If you are not being forced to read it, dont, in fact, if you ever see a copy of it lying around burn it for the sake of mankind and all A.P. history students. This book=Death!!!!

For my summer reading in my A.P. U.S. history class, I was assigned to read Founding Brothers. Terrible= understatement. I'm a HUGE history buff and enjoy reading but I REALLY don't understand why Ellis had to repeat himself every other 5 pages?! Another thing I don't understand is why all of us teenagers hated this "Pulitzer Prize" winning book, and all the old people liked it! Are teenagers the only people who have taste when reading? In conclussion, Ellis needs to proof read his book next time before publishing it because it would have saved me, and millions of other A.P. U.S. History students a summer of BORING reading.

This book should be burned. I am also 16 and have to read it for AP History. I love history and reading but this is the worst book ever. I fall asleep with every 6 words I read. It has nothing to it! At least make it interesting. I know its based on fact, but c'mon, he is so indugled with giving every little detail using huge words that you need a dictionary just to read each sentence. It's insanely stupid.

I like most others am 16 and had to read this book for Ap US History over the summer, at first the thought of reading a bookover the summer did not seem so bad since the past years I had read 4 books over summer, BUT Founding Brothers has to be the worst book, I have ever read, a lot of the ideas were repeated and some times hard to comprehend. I read this book and could NOT for the life of me remember what I had read, and had to start over, I also have to outline and sum up each chapter, this is a book that is not worth wasting a summer over even for an AP class

I'm 16 and I was assigned this book at the end of last year as my summer reading book for my AP class. My favorite subject is history and I love reading (I read for fun). However, out of all the books I have read, this is the WORST. Do not read this book unless you absolutely HAVE to. You've been warned. At first glance it looks interesting (at least for me it did), but read the first page and your lost! I always thought I was a relatively good reader, and I could understand words even if I didn't know what they meant. This book changed my opinon on that. Over-run sentences and giant words make comprehending this book almost impossible. I have to summerize each chapter, which is reletively easy since the first part of each chapter tells basically what it's all about. But then we have to "apply what we read to today's world and current leaders, analyze and evaluate individuals being discussed, extended the analysis beyond the chapter (how did it connect to other chapters/events? What might be the outcome? What will happen next?) and finally record your reaction, thoughts and opinions of each chapter". My opinion: this was the worst assignment ever. I knew that an AP class is a college level course, but I really didn't know that it was at a Graduate college level! By the way, does anyone know the Author's thesis? The book has no plot! How can one thell what's going to happen next when the book jumps from 1804 to 1790 and back to 1801 in the final chapter? Again, I express my immense dissapointment in this book and hope no one will ever read this book willingly.

I'm 16 and I'll admit, I'm a procrastinator. Now I, like most, chose this for a reading assignment. I personally find the revolutionary war interesting. So hearing the name "Founding Brothers" made me think Reovlutionary War and what happened with the founding brothers. Then I see my favorite news paper (The New York Times) said it was good, so I was like "HEY, THIS IS PROBABLY GOOD!". How wrong was I? Now remember how I said I was a procrastinator? I like a good book and will read one even for school, but I almost shot myself reading this book (no literally, I have a paintball gun). It was more longwinded and boring then anything Shakespeare could have done. And for me to say that is a sacrolige since before I reaad this book I thought Shakespeare was the worse thing ever. Just save yourself the pain and don't read it. It's longwinded, has many many tangeants that don't even relate to the topic in the book, the title is misleading, it's about 4 of the founding brothers AFTER the revolutionary war and keeps relating itself to the first chapter. The set up is interesting, but so drawn out it's horrible, it goes 1804-1796). Not a typoe, that is how it goes. Then instead of reading the book, it turns out all you had to do was read the first 2 pages of the chapter then the last chapter. In short, I am a lover of great literature and not a book burner in any of the possible meanings, but there are some things I hate when it comes to books, and longwinded, nonsensical rambling and tangants that make no sense what so other are some of the things, and unfortunately that is what this whole book is (just a reminder, this post isn't a book). So I suggest you choose a different book. Thank you for wasting your not so precioucs time on this.

I had to read this for summer freading for my AP US History class. Luckily, the teacher only made us read 4 of the 6 chapters in the book. It took me between three and four hours to get a good understanding of just one single chapter. The book is hard to get into and boring to read. In my opinion, a lot of uncesscary detail has been added and does not add to the plot. If there were some online study guides of this book that may help. Unless you are forced into reading this for your school, don't go out and get it.