Fears of a Setting Sun

The Disillusionment of America's Founders

By: Dennis C. Rasmussen

Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Americans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the republican government that the founders created. Strikingly, the founders themselves were far less confident in what they had wrought, particularly by the end of their lives. In fact, most of them - including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson - came to deem America's constitutional experiment an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation. Fears of a Setting Sun is the first book to tell the fascinating and too-little-known story of the founders' disillusionment. 

As Dennis Rasmussen shows, the founders' pessimism had a variety of sources: Washington lost his faith in America's political system above all because of the rise of partisanship, Hamilton because he felt that the federal government was too weak, Adams because he believed that the people lacked civic virtue, and Jefferson because of sectional divisions laid bare by the spread of slavery. The one major founder who retained his faith in America's constitutional order to the end was James Madison, and the book also explores why he remained relatively optimistic when so many of his compatriots did not.

©2021 Princeton University Press (P)2021 Tantor

Fun and surprisingly inspiring book about the founding fathers and their changing views.

The founding fathers disagreed on a lot, had different ideals and expectations of the American citizen, mostly expected the Constitution to not survive very long, … and we’re otherwise imperfect humans. Works a bit like Paul Johnson’s Intellectuals, but without so much of the scandal. Invigorating read for an American concerned with the current political and cultural situation.

if you are anxious about our current political...

if you are anxious about our current political climate, read this for a bit of consolation. you will also be armed to combat the arguments posed from political extremists of every stripe: even our Founders couldn't agree, but they nevertheless worked on finding areas of compromise, in the interest of patriotism, love of country, and hope.

if our Founders couldn't agree but nevertheless worked toward compromise, who are any of us to think we are somehow better or wiser to demand a position of non compromise?

Quick Read to Round Out Knowledge of the Founders

This is a worthy listen that will fill in some gaps in understanding. It was popular in the past to deify the American founding generation. In the more recent past, it became popular to tear down this facade of infallibility. This book sits in the middle. It reveals that these men had similar fears - fears that echo today when one watches the news. A few key takeaways:

1) Even the Founders became grumpy old men by the end.
2) Partisanship is as old as the Republic itself and has virtually always been an enemy of good sense.
3) The Constitution remains a living document. The epilogue says it very well. The founding generation did not think themselves more enlightened than those who would follow.

A worthy listen/read.

Renewed my faith in the American experiment

The book goes in depth explaining the strong sentiments of the founding fathers and their fears for the future. The book provides historical references which are an excellent refresher on the big challenges of their day. Here we are still resolving those conflicts, weaving a course through the tapestry of history. The past can teach us something about the present.

Fun Read

Great look at how politics have been politics forever and also how adversaries come together and sacrifice around a common cause only to find regret when their heads clear.

Relevant for our time

This book claims, or at least is claimed by many reviewers, to describe disillusionment of the founders with the Constitution and the government that it created. There is a little of that here, but in truth most of the so-called disillusionment was factional fighting between the Federalists and Republicans over the scope, tenor and nature of the new Federal government. But in that light, it's a very helpful review of the partisan argument that has dogged American politics since the founding.

There isn't much new here, other than emphasis on disagreement, rather than on agreement or accomplishment. But it's a great listen and good refresher on the founders' struggle to find common ideology and goals to animate their new creation. Highly recommended.