#1276 Revolutionary Summer
Listening to America
Listening to America
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2018
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"I feel an Awe upon my Mind, which is not easily described."
— John Adams
Clay and David discuss the book Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence, referred to as "a distinctive portrait of the crescendo moment in American history from the Pulitzer-winning American historian, Joseph Ellis." The book chronicles the events of the summer of 1776 as America's war for independence began, and how America was nearly defeated by the British.
Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog.
Learn about Clay's upcoming cultural tours and humanities retreats by visiting Odyssey Tours.
Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc.
Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Good Day, Thomas Jefferson Hour, podcast listeners and welcome to this introduction. |
| 0:05.6 | A second program about Joseph Ellis's remarkable book, Revolutionary Summer. |
| 0:10.6 | Well, we really didn't talk too much about that last week. |
| 0:13.8 | We tried. |
| 0:14.8 | We wanted to, yeah it was too much fun to listen to you and Mr. Ellis. |
| 0:18.1 | We got onto the issue of Jefferson and inconsistency and that's, you never really get out from under that one. |
| 0:23.6 | No, no. But this one is you out of character in you and I talking about this book |
| 0:29.7 | including an examination of many passages in it about the revolutionary summer of 1776. |
| 0:36.4 | Ellis's theme is that a lot is going on in Philadelphia in the Second Continental Congress |
| 0:42.1 | and John Adams is the central figure there. |
| 0:44.7 | And of course even more is going on on Long Island and in Manhattan, New York in the first great |
| 0:50.9 | battle of the revolution and a battle that we lost and it might have been worse. |
| 0:55.8 | One thing I didn't ask you about is how much Jefferson followed this, how much he knew, |
| 1:00.7 | where he was at and all that. |
| 1:02.0 | Ellis says in this book, I wish I had the passage in front of me, |
| 1:05.0 | he says, Jefferson kind of had a vague sense of it, |
| 1:08.0 | but he really kind of elevated, |
| 1:10.0 | almost levitated himself above all of this. |
| 1:13.0 | It was a great read and as I said in the program many times |
| 1:17.0 | we recommend it. |
| 1:18.0 | Go to the website and you'll find links to Mr Ellis's book. |
| 1:22.0 | Another one is coming out in the autumn |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Listening to America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Listening to America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.