The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness Review

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness. Author: Harlow G. Unger. 400 pages. 2009

Nicholle brought this book home from the library with the intent to read it herself. I picked it up off the stack and proceeded to read it. I had little interest in James Monroe until I visited and toured his estate Ash Lawn-Highland in Charlottesville, VA a few years ago. My interest was piqued less by his presidency than by his house and lifestyle.

This book fills in some of the gaps. My previous knowledge had been limited to: The Monroe Doctrine, His estate, and his actions at the Crossing of the Delaware and his actions and grievous wounding at the subsequent attack on Trenton by the Continental Army. Beyond that I knew little or nothing.

The book is a breezy, easy, quick read which surprised me considering the subject and the era. Monroe in philosophy and style stands in the middle of two great titans of the era, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Monroe like many of the founding generation remained in awe of Washington his entire life. Yet, he was a protégé of Jefferson and a very close friend. Monroe seemed politically more inclined in form to follow the examples of Washington then the Republican virtues of Jefferson.

The book offers great insight into the interpersonal relations and passions of the founding era. The free and easy exchange of assistance between these men was a revelation. Not just letters of introduction, advice, patronage etc but real money. Often friendships and support crossed political disputes. Politics was a passionate vocation, in many ways more so than today.

This book does pay homage to Monroe, his fellows, his life, and his legacy. The author has an affinity for Monroe and seeks to present his life and legacy in a positive manner. But the presentation is not hagiography, the author is critical especially near the end of Monroe's presidency. Too often modern writers adopt the jaded pundits habit of being hyper-critical at all stages. Monroe was an accomplished man who was deeply and widely involved in the founding of our nation. His accomplishments even when not as the main actor seem almost mythical when we look at current politicians. No other President of the US, except for possibly George H. W. Bush, had as long and as varied of a government career. Some times the depth and breadth of Monroe's accomplishments seem unreal in the modern context and critics using modernity as the mirror seek to find others.

Monroe's accomplishments and influence deserve more study and acknowledgement. He was the last of the founding fathers to be President, and he was the first true foreign policy President. This book is a good introduction to both the man and his presidency.

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness Overview

In this lively and compelling biography Harlow Giles Unger reveals the dominant political figure of a generation. A fierce fighter in four critical Revolutionary War battles and a courageous survivor of Valley Forge and a near-fatal wound at the Battle of Trenton, James Monroe (1751–1831) went on to become America’s first full-time politician, dedicating his life to securing America’s national and international durability.

Decorated by George Washington for his exploits as a soldier, Monroe became a congressman, a senator, U.S. minister to France and Britain, governor of Virginia, secretary of state, secretary of war, and finally America’s fifth president. The country embraced Monroe’s dreams of empire and elected him to two terms, the second time unanimously. Mentored by each of America’s first four presidents, Monroe was unquestionably the best prepared president in our history.

Like David McCullough’s John Adams and Jon Meacham’s recent book on Andrew Jackson, this new biography of Monroe is both a solid read and stellar scholarship—history in the grand tradition.

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The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal Review

this story of the birth of facebook is about to be released as a major motion picture, so i thought i'd enjoy reading the full story (i'm sure the movie will have to compact much of the details) first. maybe i have a bit of an entrepreneurial dream -- i've flirted, as have so many, with daydreams and almost-ideas for websites that would change the world (in fact, i've gone a few steps down the road on a few of `em). and i have a couple good friends who are deep, deep into the major launch of an online enterprise software that really could revolutionize the workplace. so i came to this story with that kind of interest. mostly true (some fact, some reasonable conjecture), it's an easy and fun read. but there's some real pain in the story also, and fault isn't obviously placed at anyone's shoes: there are lots of gray areas, with varying viewpoints that would shift right and wrong. go ahead and use facebook without knowing the story behind it's creation -- it won't impact your use experience in the least. but the backstory is a good one. not a `must read', to be sure, but enjoyable nonetheless.

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“The Social Network, the much anticipated movie…adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires.” —The New York Times

Best friends Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg had spent many lonely nights looking for a way to stand out among Harvard University’s elite, comptetitive, and accomplished  student body. Then, in 2003, Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard’s computers, crashed  the campus network, almost got himself  expelled, and was inspired to create Facebook, the social networking site that has since revolutionized communication around the world.
 
With Saverin’s funding their tiny start-up went from dorm room to Silicon Valley. But conflicting ideas about Facebook’s future transformed the friends into enemies. Soon, the undergraduate exuberance that marked their collaboration turned into out-and-out warfare as it fell prey to the adult world of venture capitalists, big money, lawyers.

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal Specifications

Amazon Exclusive: Kevin Spacey on The Accidental Billionaires

Kevin Spacey’s films include Superman Returns, Beyond the Sea, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, Swimming with Sharks, Seven, L.A. Confidential, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Negotiator, Hurlyburly, K-Pax, and The Shipping News. He will next be seen in Men Who Stare at Goats opposite George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, and Jeff Bridges, as well as Nick Moran’s film Telstar opposite Colm O’Neil and Pam Ferris. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of The Accidental Billionaires:

I first met Ben Mezrich when I produced and starred in 21, the film adaptation of his great bestseller Bringing Down the House. Ben has a gift for finding high-energy, strange-but-true tales and The Accidental Billionaires is no exception.

You may think you know the story of the Facebook phenomenon, but you haven’t heard the whole story and never like this. Recreating the unbelievable rise of the world's biggest social network—not to mention the planet's youngest billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg—Ben tells a captivating story of betrayal, vast amounts of cash, and two friends who revolutionized the way humans connect to one another—only to have an enormous falling out and never speak again.

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were two geeky, socially awkward Harvard undergrads who wanted nothing more than to be cool. While Eduardo chose the more straightforward path of trying to gain acceptance into one of the school's ultra-posh, semi-secret Final Clubs, Mark used his computer skills by hacking into Harvard's computers, pulling up all the pictures of every girl on campus to create a sort of "hot-or-not" site exclusive to Harvard. Though the prank nearly got Mark kicked out of college, he and Eduardo realized that they were on to something big. Thus, the initial concept of Facebook was born; what happened next, however, was right out of a Hollywood thriller.

The Accidental Billionaires is the perfect pairing of author and subject. It's pure summer fun—a juicy, fast-paced, unputdownable Mezrich tale that adds to his canon of lad lit. And Hollywood has come calling again: I'm currently working with Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin, Mike Deluca, and Aaron Sorkin on the movie adaptation of The Accidental Billionaires. If the book is any indication, the film is going to be a must see.—Kevin Spacey

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