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Virtue, Valor, and Vanity

The Inside Story of the Founding Fathers and the Price of a More Perfect Union
By: Eric Burns
Narrated by: Allen O'Reilly
Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

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Editorial Reviews

America's Founding Fathers included poets, politicians, philosophers, authors, and musicians, among other pursuits, and like their modern counterparts these men were, first and foremost, celebrities, consumed by the vain pursuit of fame, wealth, and the enduring legacy they successfully achieved. Author and Fox News host Eric Burns looks behind these almost mythical figures and dissects the ambition, insecurity, and self-conscious vanity that motivated these legends. Performer Alan O'Reilly imbues nine of these men with characteristic eloquence and insight, albeit mixed with a hefty dose of self-doubt, jealousy, and arrogance in this case. O'Reilly lends his jaunty baritone to such famous figures as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton.

Publisher's Summary

Their ambitions, intrigues, and jealousies shaped the birth of our nation, but they overcame their foibles and imperfections to throw off the chains of tyranny and form a more perfect union. We think of them now as faces on money or statues on pedestals, and, as Burns shows here in luminous prose, thats exactly what they wanted to be. They all possessed astonishing brilliance, expansive egos, and more than just a little vanity. In this fresh perspective, Burns brings the Founding Fathers down off their pedestals to reveal the flesh-and-blood men - vain and modest, sensitive and stubborn, brilliant and ambitious - who overcame their faults and squabbles to establish a new nation that would shine as a paragon of governance. For the armchair historian, here is an exciting new look at our countrys origins.
©2007 Eric Burns (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

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Profile Image for Cheryl a DeMont

absolutely worth buying

I really enjoyed this book, I learned a lot I didn't know. narrator was great author was very good every thing was excellent