America was founded on a revolutionary promise: all men are created equal. Yet at the very moment the nation embraced liberty, millions remained enslaved—and Native Americans were being pushed from their lands.
In The Great Contradiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis examines the uncomfortable paradox at the heart of America’s founding. Through figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison, Ellis reveals leaders capable of extraordinary political vision while repeatedly compromising—or remaining silent—on slavery and racial equality.
Why did men who spoke so passionately about freedom fail to extend it to everyone? Could the fragile new republic have survived without those compromises? And how did decisions made in the 1770s and 1780s shape conflicts that would eventually lead to civil war?
Read our Instaread summary of The Great Contradiction to discover the complicated choices, moral failures, and unresolved tensions behind America’s founding ideals.
