Heirs of the Founders, H. W. Brands
Heirs of the Founders, H. W. Brands
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Heirs of the Founders
The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants

Author: H. W. Brands

Narrator: Eric Jason Martin

Unabridged: 14 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/13/2018

Synopsis

From New York Times bestselling historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how, in nineteenth-century America, a new set of political giants battled to complete the unfinished work of the Founding Fathers and decide the future of our democracy

In the early 1800s, three young men strode onto the national stage, elected to Congress at a moment when the Founding Fathers were beginning to retire to their farms. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, a champion orator known for his eloquence, spoke for the North and its business class. Henry Clay of Kentucky, as dashing as he was ambitious, embodied the hopes of the rising West. South Carolina's John Calhoun, with piercing eyes and an even more piercing intellect, defended the South and slavery.
     Together these heirs of Washington, Jefferson and Adams took the country to war, battled one another for the presidency and set themselves the task of finishing the work the Founders had left undone. Their rise was marked by dramatic duels, fierce debates, scandal and political betrayal. Yet each in his own way sought to remedy the two glaring flaws in the Constitution: its refusal to specify where authority ultimately rested, with the states or the nation, and its unwillingness to address the essential incompatibility of republicanism and slavery.
They wrestled with these issues for four decades, arguing bitterly and hammering out political compromises that held the Union together, but only just. Then, in 1850, when California moved to join the Union as a free state, "the immortal trio" had one last chance to save the country from the real risk of civil war. But, by that point, they had never been further apart.
     Thrillingly and authoritatively, H. W. Brands narrates an epic American rivalry and the little-known drama of the dangerous early years of our democracy.

About H. W. Brands

H. W. Brands taught at Vanderbilt University and Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History. A writer on American history and politics, his books include Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, and The First American. Several of his books have been bestsellers, and two, Traitor to His Class and The First American, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He lectures frequently on historical and current events, and can be seen and heard on national and international television and radio programs.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jenny on August 19, 2018

It has been well noted that we Americans know little of our history. As Civics, Government, United States History and Political Science are delivering courses of study today, we can assume that the knowledge vacuum in these areas will only grow. Heirs of the Founders by H.W. Brands is an attempt to f......more

Goodreads review by Tim on March 06, 2023

What a great idea for a book. H.W. Brands covers the political lives of 3 giants of the post-Founding generation. For about a 40 year period from 1810 to 1850, these three non-Presidents had an enormous influence on the direction of the country. You have: The Southerner, John C. Calhoun (1782 – 1850)......more

Goodreads review by Jenny on August 19, 2018

It has been well noted that we Americans know little of our history. As Civics, Government, United States History and Political Science are delivering courses of study today, we can assume that the knowledge vacuum in these areas will only grow. Heirs of the Founders by H.W. Brands is an attempt to f......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on October 29, 2022

The characterization of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun as the three giants of mid-19th Century America is one that is frequently used and this is not the first book I have read that accepted the idea. While it is an easy argument to make for Clay and Webster, I have always rejected that Calhoun was a gi......more

Goodreads review by CoachJim on July 14, 2020

The genius of Henry Clay was a knack for compromise, for finding formulas neither side loved but both sides could live with. He had conjured one such formula in the Missouri crisis of 1820, and another in the South Carolina crisis of 1833. The genius of American democracy was its ability to muddle t......more

Quotes

“Lively and learned . . . Brands has produced a narrative that pulsates vigorously . . . The three senators wear themselves out and all but die on the job, their respective causes still unresolved, their long public service having earned them fame, but not the political prize for which they most lusted: the presidency (though not for want of trying).”
—Harold Holzer, Wall Street Journal
 
“A historical spellbinder . . . A lively, vivid, and thoroughly researched account of a time when discord gripped the nation and wouldn’t let go.”
—David Holahan, Christian Science Monitor
 
“Brands’s easy prose and superior, simple organization makes this work an engrossing, entertaining, and educating read on issues important then that echo today in the modern debate on the limits of federal government power.”
—Robert Davis, New York Journal of Books

“They were called ‘The Great Triumvirate’—three senators whose rivalries, alliances, and work in the tumultuous battles of the 19th century profoundly influenced the course of American history. H. W. Brands tells the story of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster with verve and clarity, reminding us of a bygone age when giants truly walked the floor of the United States Senate.”
—Jon Meacham, author of The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
 
“H. W. Brands has brought us a searching and excellent account of three legendary Americans whose leadership and rivalries did so much to shape the period of our history between that of the Founders and the Civil War. Heirs of the Founders should remind those of our own time how important Clay, Calhoun, and Webster are to the nation we live in today.”
—Michael Beschloss, author of Presidents of War
 
“H. W. Brands, with his characteristic combination of sweep and eye for detail, tells the story—always exciting, often inspiring, ultimately tragic—of the titans who tried to guide the handiwork of the Founding Fathers through the turbulent first half of the nineteenth century. He weaves a cautionary tale for our own time of troubles.”
—Richard Brookhiser, author of John Marshall: The Man Who Made the Supreme Court

"Brands uses the life stories of three consequential early-19th-century American politicians—all with unfulfilled aspirations to become president—to show how tensions inherent in the founding fathers’ vision of the country led to the calamity of the Civil War . . . This fascinating history illuminates rifts that still plague the country today."
—Publishers Weekly

"An engrossing and revealing account of personal rivalries that played out on a national scale."
—Booklist

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