Infamous Scribblers is a perceptive and witty exploration of the most volatile period in the history of the American press. News correspondent and renonwned media historian Eric Burns tells of Ben Franklin; Alexander Hamilton and Sam Adams—the leading journalists among the Founding Fathers; of George Washington and John Adams; the leading disdainers of journalists; and Thomas Jefferson; the leading manipulator of journalists. These men and the writers who abused and praised them in print (there was; at the time; no job description of "journalist") included the incendiary James Franklin; Ben's brother and one of the first muckrakers; the high minded Thomas Paine; the hatchet man James Callender; and a rebellious crowd of propagandists; pamphleteers; and publishers. It was Washington who gave this book its title. He once wrote of his dismay at being "buffited in the public prints by a set of infamous scribblers." The journalism of the era was often partisan; fabricated; overheated; scandalous; sensationalistic and sometimes stirring; brilliant; and indispensable. Despite its flaws—even because of some of them—the participants hashed out publicly the issues that would lead America to declare its independence and; after the war; to determine what sort of nation it would be.
#1284733 in Books 2012-05-08Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.42 x 1.00 x 6.41l; 1.26 #File Name: 1584659599296 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy David KaplanVery well done6 of 8 people found the following review helpful. I love this bookBy J. AronsonFrancis Bremer has done something important; he has re-introduced us to our English Puritan constitutional democratic republican roots; as Cromwell said "warts and all." After reading the tantalizingly short first chapter on John Winthrop; I resolved to buy Bremer's earlier book length treatment of this most interesting and truly godly man."First Founders" is an easy read but it also reflects a good deal of original research and careful consideration of primary documents. Although the citations are very general they do seem to be accurate based upon my own readings of the same sources mentioned at the back of the book. I suspect Bremer is holding his cards close to his vest and that more from him along the same lines can be expected.Although this book has many of the quantities of an outline or heads of proposals rather than a formal history or a narrative; it substantially expanded my own understanding of how puritan New England was perhaps the most consequential expression of the English constitutional crisis precipitated by the Stuarts after 1607. Bremer's selection of the subjects of his biographical sketches is very sound; I might say impeccable. By introducing us to the most important figures in New England between 1630-90 and firmly connecting them to the English Civil Wars and the larger North Atlantic community of the second half of the 17th C.; Bremer has laid the ground work for a more detailed and hopefully broader reinterpretation of US history from 1630-1775.Bremer states; his intent is to focus on the way in which his subjects expressed their religion in the secular world. Therefore; I think that this book would have benefited from a précis that reminds the reader that the Calvinistic expression of the Reformation originated in Zürich and Geneva about 1525. It was transmitted down the Rhine to the Dutch Republic and introduced into England after 1530. It was less than 100 years old when the Winthrop Fleet landed in Boston in 1630. The key points of the Reformation common to all puritans of the time were: A one to one relationship between God and every individual; a priesthood of all believers; and the idea that salvation was achieved "sola fide et sola scriptura" (only by faith and only through the Bible). Such a précis would also remind the reader that no puritan orthodoxy ever emerged and that Presbyterians; Congregationalists; Baptists; Quakers; Unitarians; Evangelicals; Fundamentalists and even Ranters are all on the same continuum of the English puritan or English reformed system of Christian belief. Along these lines it might also be observed that the chief aim of the Reformation was to re-derive Christianity from first principles. In England and New England reforming religion also entailed reforming secular government and that the congregational religious model immediately translated into the idea of a parallel secular constitutional democratic republic both in New England and a few years later in England (see: Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641; the several Agreements of the People 1647-49; The Heads or Proposals; The Case of the [New Model] Army Truly Stated (1647)).n.b. to Bremer: You missed a Rainsborowe. John Winthrop's fourth and last wife was Martha Rainsborowe; another sister of Thomas and William. The Rainsborowes and Bourns had been closely connected since at least 1600 in Wapping; England. Wapping is one of the Tower Hamlets just south of London. Both the Rainsborowes and Bourns were important sea-faring and merchant adventurer families in the time of ElizabethanI and James I/VI. William Rainsborowe was an original member of the Boston Artillery Company and one author states that Thomas was a deputy from Boston when the Massachusetts Liberties were adopted in 1641; but I have been unable to confirm that. Thomas Rainsborowe's famous exchange with Henry Ireton at Putney ("the lest he in England; etc. . . .") is clearly asking that the congregational religious model be applied to the proposed new secular government of England.0 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Do Hoon KimVery good quality.
