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“One of the problems with the founding guys is that they’re trapped in portraits” said Richard B. Bernstein, author of Founding Fathers Reconsidered, sitting in the shade of Bryant Park’s canopy of London plane trees.
“But they’re not like that.” He took a minute to smile appreciatively at his modest but captive audience. “They’re just guys,” he added. “You gotta love ‘em.”Although it was the evening of one of the hottest days of the summer, 30-odd history buffs gathered at Bryant Park’s outdoor “Reading Room” for the first in a series of four discussions to be held at the location. Around 20 more park-goers wandered in during the talk.
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“One of the problems with the founding guys is that they’re trapped in portraits” said Richard B. Bernstein, author of Founding Fathers Reconsidered, sitting in the shade of Bryant Park’s canopy of London plane trees. “But they’re not like that.” He took a minute to smile appreciatively at his modest but captive audience. “They’re just guys,” he added. “You gotta love ‘em.”Although it was the evening of one of the hottest days of the summer, 30-odd history buffs gathered at Bryant Park’s outdoor “Reading Room” for the first in a series of four discussions to be held at the location. Around 20 more park-goers wandered in during the talk.Bernstein's first order of business was to dispense of the term “Founding Fathers” in favor of “Founding Guys,” a first step to rendering the icons of American history accessible human beings. Sleeves rolled up past his elbows, Bernstein talked about “Ben, George, Thomas, James, Alex, and the two Johns” as if they were his professor pals at New York Law School.Bernstein he had three reasons for writing Founding Fathers Reconsidered.First: “I wanted to explain they are human beings. To venerate them as being immeasurably superior does a disservice to us as well as them.”Tension between them was fundamental in the forming of the Constitution, he said. "We are born of the conflicts among them. We are born of the moments they threw chairs at one another…metaphorically and sometimes literally."Second: “To remind readers that human beings [special emphasis here] did and can still do great things politically.” Would a man of superhuman genius—a Founding Father of mythic foresight—actually lose his composure to the extent that he would tear off his wig, throw it on the ground in the middle of a congressional session, and trample it in a frustrated rage? No, Bernstein said, but John Adams did.“The framers of the Constitution are put on pedestals and made into all-knowing, all-seeing oracles.”In his book and he tried to emphasize that “these are human beings. They have egos. They have insecurities. They’re scared. They have the future in their hands, and they may drop and break it.”His third and final reason for writing the book: "Because they’re just so much fun to talk about!”Toward the end of the discussion, an audience member asked Bernstein whether he agreed with the proposition that the animosity in modern politics is worse than it has ever been. Bernstein responded that in modern politics, “We haven’t seen a member of the house grab a cane and beat another member over the top of the head and shoulders.”So, no.
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Founding Fathers Reconsidered
Richard B. Bernstein
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