Joseph J. Ellis

Joseph J. Ellis, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in History for Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (Knopf 2000), is Professor of History Emeritus at Mount Holyoke College whose work focuses on the lives and times of the founders of the United States.

Articles by this Author

Two Intimate Enemies, September 2000, Summer 2025 | Vol. 70, No. 3

When John Adams was elected president, and Thomas Jefferson as vice president, each came to see the other as a traitor. Out of their enmity grew our modern political system.

“The Die is Now Cast”, November/December 2024 | Vol. 69, No. 5

American resistance to British authority developed with stunning speed 250 years ago in response to George III’s inflexibility.

George Washington Invents the Presidency, Winter 2020 | Vol. 64, No. 1

The young nation was lucky to have the only candidate on Earth who could do the job.

What Does the Second Amendment Really Mean?, September/October 2019 | Vol. 64, No. 4

To know what the Framers intended, we need to understand the late-18th century historical context.

Compromise 1: The Philadelphia Story, Summer 2010 | Vol. 60, No. 2

Without major compromises by all involved, and the agreement to avoid the contentious issue of slavery, the framers would never have written and ratified the Constitution.

Madison’s Radical Agenda, Winter 2010 | Vol. 59, No. 4

A diminutive, persuasive Virginian hijacked the Constitutional Convention and forced the moderates to accept a national government with vastly expanded powers.

Inventing the Presidency, October 2004 | Vol. 55, No. 5

As America goes into its 55th presidential election, we should remember that there might have been only one if we hadn’t had the only original candidate on Earth who could do the job.

Be Confident—and Careful, November/December 2001 | Vol. 52, No. 8

Two Intimate Enemies, September 2000, Summer 2025 | Vol. 51, No. 5

When John Adams was elected president, and Thomas Jefferson as vice president, each came to see the other as a traitor. Out of their enmity grew our modern political system.

Friends at Twilight, May/June 1993 | Vol. 44, No. 3

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson stood together in America’s perilous dawn, but politics soon drove them apart. Then, in their last years, the two old enemies began a remarkable correspondence that is both testimony to the power of friendship and an eloquent summary of the dialogue that went on within the Revolutionary generation and that continues within our own.

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