Bnai Abraham Presents R.B. Bernstein to Speak About His Book: The Founding Fathers Reconsidered

Oxford proudly announces that R.B. Bernstein will appear at Bnai Abraham Synagogue (1545 Bushkill Street, Easton, Pennsylvania) on Saturday, December 10, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. to deliver a lecture presenting the paperback of:

By R. B. Bernstein

(Oxford | September 1, 2011 | $14.95 | 238 Pages | ISBN: 9780199832576)

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Praise for the hardcover:

*Winner of the New York Law School's Otto Walter Prize for the Best Book of 2009* 

*Finalist for the 2010 George Washington Book Prize*

“Read Bernstein's book if you can. It's both a reminder of how fallible the Founding Fathers were--and yet how good they still look to us nearly a quarter of a millennium later.”  -Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic

“A masterly volume brimming with apt description and insightful analysis, The Founding Fathers Reconsidered respectfully brings America's most cherished heroes firmly down to earth.” -History Book Club

“This is a sparkling book. The endnotes alone— the product of decades of serious study and thoughtful reflection— are worth the volume's price. Scholars and thoughtful lay readers alike will find The Founding Fathers Reconsidered a rich and rewarding work.” -Claremont Review of Books

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First coined by then Senator Warren Harding in 1916, in his keynote address to the Republican National Convention, the phrase "Founding Fathers" remains at the center of the way that Americans talk about politics and the Constitution. Some revere them, others revile them, and still others insist that only the founding fathers can tell us what our Constitution means. But who were they? What did they do? And why do we care?

THE FOUNDING FATHERS RECONSIDERED illuminates the quarrelsome, brilliant group of statesmen, soldiers, lawyers, and farmers whom we call the founding fathers. Historian R. B. Bernstein traces the historical forces that shaped them; offers a concise, even-handed assessment of their achievements and failures; and shows us how succeeding generations have come to terms with them, the history they made, and the government they launched. Helping us to see the founding fathers as human beings who aspired to and sometimes achieved greatness, yet who also expected us to improve on what they left us, Bernstein reminds us that the fate of the American experiment they launched is in our hands.

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R. B. Bernstein is Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School, and has written, edited, or co-edited nineteen books on American constitutional and legal history, including Thomas Jefferson (OUP 2003).  Bernstein is delighted to appear at Bnai Abraham Synagogue, a warm and welcoming, dynamic Jewish center in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Guided enthusiastically by Rabbi Daniel Z. Stein, Bnai Abraham Synagogue presents vibrant, engaging and meaningful programs and opportunities to enrich the community. To learn more about Bnai Abraham, please visit its website at www.bnaiabraham.org and visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BnaiAbraham. For further information about the synagogue or the event, please call the office at 610.258.5343, or send an e-mail to rabbi@bnaiabraham.org.         

THE FOUNDING FATHERS RECONSIDERED

by R. B. Bernstein, was published, in paperback, by Oxford University Press on September 1, 2011

($14.95 | 238 pages |ISBN: 9780199832576).