Author: Paul M. Zall Publisher: Ecco Press ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
"George Washington laughing? That the venerable Father of Our Country, the austere and unfailingly honest leader of historical record and legend, had a penchant for tall tales and crafty quips seems unthinkable to most Americans, even today. In The Wit & Wisdom of the Founding Fathers, historian and scholar Paul Zall shatters the sober image of American icons George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to reveal - and celebrate - their natural bent for incisive, spirited humor." "With ample quotes from personal correspondence and private memoirs, Zall peers behind the staid and serious facade of our first three presidents and demonstrates how each strove to suppress his sense of mirth to maintain a dignified public reputation. By lifting the curtain on our Founding Fathers as they engage in practical jokes and regale friends with humorous stories, Zall opens a window on their personalities otherwise obscured by our preconceptions of them as larger-than-life historical figures. While Franklin's humor and wisdom is legendary thanks to his authorship of Poor Richard's Almanac, readers will be surprised to learn that Washington had a penchant for biting sarcasm; that Adams engaged in direct, colloquial, even vulgar, humor; and that Jefferson, our most cerebral president, enjoyed laughing at the absurdity of his own situation as leader of the nation."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: Bill Adler Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing ISBN: 1461625211 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
Arguably, no other revolution in history has enjoyed such a brilliant gallery of thinkers as the one that led to the founding of the United States. America’s Founding Fathers is centered on the personal philosophies, opinions, thoughts, witticisms, and feelings of the exemplary men who founded our nation. This book gathers together the founding fathers' best quotations on a variety of subjects including life, love, marriage, family, children, religion, patriotism, sacrifice, law, professionalism, medicine, public health, education, money, “modern” society, the Revolutionary War, humor, and death. Colleagues and rivals, friends and enemies, the eight founding fathers—Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Benjamin Rush, and Thomas Paine—here provide their views on subjects as relevant now as ever.
Author: Buckner F. Melton Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc. ISBN: 1612342876 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 636
Book Description
No group is quoted--and misquoted--more often than America's founders. When a political controversy heats up, the nation's speechwriters, politicians, reporters, editorial writers, and talking heads try to influence the debate by quoting their words. Year in and year out, teachers and political buffs look to their wisdom to illuminate the issues. How much easier it would be to find every key quote by the founders in a single source. The Quotable Founding Fathers, edited by Buckner F. Melton, Jr., provides just that source--a compilation of some 2,500 quotes summing up the wit and wisdom of the founders. While some of these quotations can be found in general quotation compilations such as Bartlett's, these volumes offer only a fraction of what's available. The Quotable Founding Fathers mines deeper into the founders' essays, diaries, letters, speeches, and sermons to extract all the nuggets that are significant to the history of the country-- and to the ongoing debate about the meaning of democracy in America.
Author: Lee Kuan Yew Publisher: Editions Didier Millet ISBN: 981438528X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 165
Book Description
Lee Kuan Yew played the pivotal role in Singapore’s transition from British Crown Colony to independent developing nation, and on to the economically powerful and diplomatically influential city-state it is today. Throughout this surprising and at times painful journey, he has proved a charismatic and occasionally controversial leader. Lee is a conviction politician whose speeches are unambiguous, characterful and eminently quotable; this collection of almost 600 short quotations provides a compelling summary of his views on a wide range of topics from Singapore’s past, present and future. In Lee's own words: "I have been accused of many things in my lfe, but not even my worst enemy has ever accused me of being afraid to speak my mind."
Author: Benjamin Franklin Publisher: Courier Corporation ISBN: 0486110737 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 67
Book Description
Hundreds of delightful aphorisms, carefully selected from many issues of Franklin's popular 18th-century publication: "He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas" and many others.
Author: Richard Brookhiser Publisher: Basic Books ISBN: 0465008747 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 274
Book Description
What would George Washington do about weapons of mass destruction? How would Benjamin Franklin feel about unwed mothers? What would Alexander Hamilton think about minorities in the military? Examining a host of issues from terrorism to women's rights, acclaimed historian Richard Brookhiser reveals why we still turn to the Founders in moments of struggle, farce, or disaster. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Adams and all the rest have an unshakable hold on our collective imagination. We trust them more than today's politicians because they built our country, they wrote our user's manuals-the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution-and they ran the nation while it was still under warranty and could be returned to the manufacturer. If anyone knows how the U.S.A. should work, it must be the Founders. Brookhiser uses his vast knowledge to apply their views to today's issues. He also explores why what the Founders would think still matters. Written with Brookhiser's trademark eloquence and wit, while drawing on his deep understanding of American history, What Would the Founders Do? sheds new light on the disagreements and debates that have shaped our country from the beginning. Now, more than ever, we need the Founders-inspiring, argumentative, amusing know-it-alls-to help us work through the issues that divide us.
Author: John P. Holms Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 1466889683 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 103
Book Description
As a bestselling author and our nation's earliest spokesman, Benjamin Franklin brilliantly extolled virtues of temperance, industry, and self-reliance --character traits which throughout our history have been celebrated as both personally liberating and quintessentially American. In this next installment of the highly successful Bite-Size series, Bite-Size Franklin draws some practical wisdom, and more than a few laughs, from Franklin's intimate letters, scientific essays, newspaper articles, and revolutionary writings, as well as from the pages of career advice, aphorisms, and humorous verse he weaved together in his Autobiography, and in his yearly publication Poor Richard's Almanac.
Author: Paul M. Zall
Author: Bill Adler
Author: Buckner F. Melton
Author: David Bowman
Author: Lee Kuan Yew
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Author: Alan Schroeder
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Author: Richard Brookhiser
Author: John P. Holms