Please join us for our book club on Wednesday, April 8 at 6:30pm in the KCHS Community Room.
The book we will discuss in called Great Contradiction – Tragic Side of the American Founding

As America’s 250th birthday approaches, Joseph J. Ellis’ brilliant history of the nation’s founding can help us better understand what we are celebrating—and at whose expense.

More info at: https://www.bookpage.com/reviews/the-great-contradiction-joseph-j-ellis-book-review/

Summary:
The American Revolution and the founding of the United States were world-changing events. While acknowledging those monumental successes, it is important to remember two horrible tragedies our founders were unable to resolve: the failure to end slavery and the failure to avoid seizing the land of Native Americans. Bestselling historian Joseph J. Ellis brilliantly addresses those subjects in The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding. Writing with great clarity and a deep understanding of the issues and the human beings involved, he explores an essential question: Were these failures inevitable and unavoidable or the results of poor moral leadership?

When the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, proclaiming that “all men are created equal” and endowed with unalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” slavery was acceptable in Europe and North America. When the American Revolution began, there were a half-million enslaved people of African origin in the mainland British colonies; the vast majority of them were denied these rights. A few Quakers and other religious leaders began to challenge slavery as a sin, but what early abolitionists had in moral certainty, they lacked in strategy.

Ellis wisely advises us to deal with realities and not mythology, writing frankly and forcefully. Though Washington consolidated Indian policy in the federal government and asserted that just policies were a major priority, reality set in: The westward surge of migrating Americans “swept all treaties, promises, excellent intentions, and moral consideration to the far banks of history.” Ellis writes that for Native Americans, the “victory of 1783 proved an unmitigated calamity from which history would provide no rescue.”

In addition to Washington, the familiar figures of Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and Adams are here. Many important others include Anthony Benezet, the Quaker abolitionist whose writings, more than those of anyone else, spread the truth about slavery; Henry Knox, Washington’s secretary of war, who insisted that Native tribes should be considered as individual foreign nations and not as subjects of any particular state; and Alexander McGillivray, the charismatic and powerful leader of the Creek Nation.

Ellis is one of our country’s great historians. His books on early American history (such as Founding Brothers, which won a Pulitzer, and American Sphinx, which won a National Book Award) are national treasures. As the semiquincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approaches, The Great Contradiction can help us better understand what we are celebrating—and at whose expense.