American Creation

American Creation is a 2007 nonfiction book by Joseph Ellis that covers the successes and failures of the founders of the United States from 1775 to 1803.

Ellis starts with the year and three months that set in motion the colonies’ declaration of independence and subsequent revolution. In this eventful year, the British played the worst possible hand they could, removing the possibility of reconciliation. The colonists included fiery and impetuous rebels such as Patrick Henry, and those like John Adams, who preferred to bide their time until the separation from England garnered more public support. Adams claimed to be the true father of independence, since he created the resolution instructing states to draft new constitutions, but Thomas Jefferson eclipsed Adams’s role by writing the unique, forward-looking Preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

Ellis next describes the winter of 1777-1778, when Washington and his troops camped in Valley Forge. He details the difficulties they encountered in a different light than the common hagiography of Washington. The experience taught Washington that capturing the hearts and minds of the people in the countryside was more even important than fighting the British. He realized that this countryside presented the Americans with an advantage: it was impossible for the British to occupy and control this vast territory for any length of time.