02925cam a2200361 i 4500 1014018565 TxAuBib 20231218120000.0 231121s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u bl2023175654 9781639364077 HRD 32.00 1639364072 HRD 32.00 TxAuBib rda A republic of scoundrels [BOOK] : the schemers, intriguers & adventurers who created a new American nation / edited by David Head & Timothy C. Hemmis. Schemers, intriguers and adventurers who created a new American nation. First Pegasus Books cloth edition. New York : Pegasus Books, 2023. xx, 348 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-336) and index. "We now have a clear-eyed understanding of Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton; even so, they are often considered American saints, revered for their wisdom and self-sacrificing service to the nation. However, within the Founding Generation lurked many unscrupulous figures—men who violated the era’s expectation of public virtue and advanced their own interests at the expense of others. They were turncoats and traitors, opportunists and con artists, spies, and foreign intriguers. Some of their names are well known: Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr. Others are less notorious now but were no less threatening. There was Charles Lee, the Continental Army general who offered to tell the British how to defeat the Americans, and James Wilkinson, who served fifteen years as a commanding general in the US Army, despite rumors that he spied for Spain and conspired with traitors. The early years of the republic were full of self-interested individuals, sometimes succeeding in their plots, sometimes failing, but always shaping the young nation. A Republic of Scoundrels seeks to re-examine the Founding Generation and replace the hagiography of the Founding Fathers with something more realistic: a picture that embraces the many facets of our nation’s origins." -Provided by publisher. 20231218. Founding Fathers of the United States. Political culture United States History 18th century. United States Politics and government 1775-1783. United States Politics and government 1783-1809. United States Social life and customs 1775-1783. United States Social life and customs 1783-1865. Head, David, editor. Hemmis, Timothy C.,.