

Fears of a Setting Sun
The Disillusionment of America's Founders
Author: Dennis C. Rasmussen
Narrator: Keith Sellon-Wright
Unabridged: 9 hr 16 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 03/02/2021
Categories: Nonfiction, History, Us History
Synopsis
As Dennis Rasmussen shows, the founders' pessimism had a variety of sources: Washington lost his faith in America's political system above all because of the rise of partisanship, Hamilton because he felt that the federal government was too weak, Adams because he believed that the people lacked civic virtue, and Jefferson because of sectional divisions laid bare by the spread of slavery. The one major founder who retained his faith in America's constitutional order to the end was James Madison, and the book also explores why he remained relatively optimistic when so many of his compatriots did not.