The Lost Founder

James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution

De: Jesse Wegman

Narrado por: Jesse Wegman

New York Times journalist Jesse Wegman tells the story of James Wilson, a Founding Father whose bold vision shaped American democracy but whose legacy was lost to scandal.

As a young lawyer, James Wilson made a celebrated case for American independence in an essay that inspired the famous words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” He wrote the first draft of the Constitution and, along with the more famous James Madison, played perhaps the essential role in its ultimate creation.

Wilson believed that the people are the ultimate source of all power. He argued successfully for a strong central government and a powerful presidency, and fought unsuccessfully for a direct vote for the president and the Senate. Appointed as a justice to the first Supreme Court, he was later brought down by reckless land speculation and died of malaria in the back room of a North Carolina tavern while hiding from his creditors.

Instead of being remembered as one of the nation’s great political thinkers, Wilson was virtually written out of history. But in The Lost Founder, Wegman brings to life the most prescient of the earliest patriots and makes a convincing argument that scandal should not diminish the life and impact of a brilliant, complicated man whose vision for his country could not be more relevant today.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“With insight and eloquence, Jesse Wegman has done heroic work in bringing a vital but obscure architect of America back into the popular conversation. As Wegman amply proves, James Wilson merits our reconsideration—and our gratitude.”
—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer

“I like to think James Madison would be miffed that James Wilson has finally gotten his due as a major framer of the U.S. Constitution. Jesse Wegman’s spellbinding and erudite biography, revealing Wilson’s crucial and often cantankerous role as America’s most democratic founder, could not arrive at a better time.”
—Jill Lepore, author of We the People and These Truths

“Jesse Wegman has written a gripping and deeply researched work of American history. Scottish immigrant, signer of both the Declaration and the Constitution, and the man who coined 'We the People,' James Wilson believed that power resided in the people themselves, foreseeing a democratic future the country is still struggling to achieve. That he died broke and largely forgotten, his headstone bearing the wrong date of his death, is one of American history's more painful ironies. The Lost Founder restores Wilson to his rightful place and challenges us to reconsider what popular sovereignty really means.”
—Ken Burns, award-winning documentary filmmaker and director of PBS' The American Revolution