Contradictions of 1776

Article excerpt

Historian Joseph J. Ellis, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of bestselling books on the American founders, has shaped how millions understand the Revolutionary era. His works on Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and other founding figures have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and built a broad consensus across the political spectrum about how we interpret 1776. Yet the headline's reference to "Contradictions" suggests the piece examines tensions in how Ellis, or the founders themselves, have been understood, raising questions about whose narrative has prevailed in America's founding story.