Reviews for Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution

The average rating for Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-10-21 00:00:00 Rob Stein Well, it was good, and it's the only bio of Gouverneur I've been able to get my hands on. There's nothing that makes this really sing, but as the guy is the author of such phrases as "We, the people of the United States of America," and the guy who laid out the street plan of Manhattan, he deserves a little time and effort.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-24 00:00:00 Cliff Otto I seem to always read a book about a Founding Father around this time of year. I found this book at a used bookstore and I have always wanted to learn about Gouverneur Morris. $7.99 later, I had my book and my founding father. Let me start with the positives. Brookhiser is an excellent mainstream historian. He doesn't fill his works with unnecessary fluff or filler which I can appreciate. He also writes in a fair and balanced way that doesn't praise or demonize his subject. His writing is crisp and I enjoy his work. So why only two starts. Well, that isn't something Brookhiser could control. I found the life of Morris boring and for the most part uninteresting. Yes, he was important with his contributions to the Constitution and the French government after Louis XVI was taken from Versailles but that's about it. The rest is the tale on a playboy on the prowl in both the new and old world. The times he lived in were interesting but he himself wasn't. In the end I think I could have read an article on Morris and been okay. I picked up Brookhiser's new book on John Marshall but I think I am going to take a break from this time period for a bit and revisit it at a later date.