The Founders at Home: The Building of America, 1735-1817

Why the American Revolution, of all the great revolutions, was the only enduring success.

Through the Founders’ own voices―and in the homes they designed and built to embody the ideal of domestic happiness they fought to achieve―we come to understand why the American Revolution, of all great revolutions, was the only enduring success.

The Founders were vivid, energetic men, with sophisticated worldviews, and this magnificent reckoning of their successes draws liberally from their own eloquent writings on their actions and well-considered intentions. Richly illustrated with America’s historical and architectural treasures, this volume also considers the houses the Founders built with such care and money to reflect their vision for the fledgling nation. That so many great thinkers―Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, John Jay, the Lees of Stratford Hall, and polemicist William Livingston―came together to accomplish what rightly seemed to them almost a miracle is a standing historical mystery, best understood by pondering the men themselves and their profound and world-changing ideas.

Through impressive research and an intimate understanding of these iconic patriots, award-winning author Myron Magnet offers fresh insight into why the American experiment resulted in over two centuries of unexampled freedom and prosperity.

“The Founders at Home is rich in insight, wit, and wisdom about the men who created America. It’s superb—a pleasure to read on every page.” - Thomas Fleming, author of The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers

“Myron Magnet has produced an excellent book from this excellent idea: We can better understand the Founders, who shaped how we live, if we better understand how they lived in the homes they designed and social circles that radiated from those homes. The American Revolution, he argues, was a success because of its moderation, and this virtue suffused the Founders’ lives.” - George F. Will, author of One Man’s America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation

“Americans have long admired our Founders from a respectful distance. Now author Myron Magnet pulls us closer, into the framers’ homes and minds, so that we suddenly see not only what drove them but also how very much we share with those first Americans. Accurate, skillful, and utterly charming.” - Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man

“The Founders of the American Revolution avoided the excesses of other major revolutions, not just because of their seminal ideas but also because they were practical, good men, both at work and at home. Myron Magnet, in this strikingly original thesis, shows how the protection of liberty and property were natural extensions of the way the Founders organized their families and homes. We owe him thanks for this timely reminder that how we live and what we think should not be antithetical, but properly complementary.” - Victor Davis Hanson, author of A War Like No Other

Myron Magnet is a winner of the National Humanities Medal, and a New Yorker. For more, please see www.myronmagnet.com.