First Principles by Thomas E Ricks Explores Greco-Roman Influences on the First Four American Presidents

First Principles by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Thomas E. Ricks is about the four first presidents of the United States, their educations, and their background/interest in the Classics (Latin & Greek philosophical roots).  I listened to the audiobook and feel as though I now have a basic grounding and should presently go back and listen to it again. Not sure I will, though, so I will go ahead and review it while it’s fresh in my mind.

The best part about this book, in my opinion, is how Ricks compares and contrasts the Founders, making each of them more distinctive by having their foils depicted right there alongside them.  For instance, I’ve always thought of Thomas Jefferson as such an intellectual, but it sounds as though James Madison was truly the forward-thinking, thoroughly-educated genius among them. Thomas Jefferson seems the eclectic dabbler in comparison (if still fairly genius, in my opinion).  John Adams was perhaps presented in the most and least flattering lights—he never owned slaves, but in his presidency he passed the ‘alien and sedition’ acts, which are counter to the Free Speech amendment, and then (this is my own contribution) there was his refusal to ‘remember the ladies’, as his wife Abigail implored him to do, though Ricks spends little to no time discussing this nor the wives of these Revolutionaries, nor to my recollection any of the female leaders of the Revolution (for that sort of reading, I can’t recommend Cokie Roberts’ Founding Mothers highly enough, though she doesn’t at all zero in on the topic of Classicism).  Frankly, Ricks’ writing reminds me that one of the reasons the old history books are so dull for women and minorities is because they really do talk almost exclusively about white men. 

Ironically, Ricks cogitates on the wrongs of slavery quite a bit, merely presenting it as a severe vice among virtues without looking once at the practical reasons the slaveholding Revolutionaries may not have found it prudent to discard their wealth and leave it to less ethical (but still wealthy) people to lead. The Revolution likely wouldn’t have happened at all if Washington had destituted himself. Or Jefferson. Or Madison. (Not sure about Adams, but he didn’t own slaves anyhow—and he was actually the poorest of the four.)  From what I gather, none of these four Founders was a fan of slavery, and they even spoke about the evils of it, but Ricks doesn’t care to nuance and just thumbs his nose at them for being hypocrites.  And there’s some truth to that, of course—though I mostly suspect Ricks doesn’t want to be accused of being an apologist for slavery.

Ricks heaps on the praise and the criticism, and unfortunately I don’t feel that he so much empathizes with any of the Founding Fathers. He throws in slanderous accusations with seeming impunity. Perhaps they’re true, but I would have preferred it if he had treated them with a bit more delicacy—yes, mention them, but take the time to fully explain the evidence and give any possible defense that might apply (though I guess that might open him to slanders of being an apologist for whatever they did wrong). It’s a bit unsettling to leave terrible, possibly unjust accusations mostly unaddressed and simply move forward. All those aside, I have to say Ricks is like a professor giving grades: Washington gets an A for bravery and rigid, upright reserve, a D for education, and a high F for slavery (after all, he did free some in his will); Adams’ report card shows an A for not having slaves and an A for education, but a D for feeling eternally sorry for himself and expressing it; etc.

In leaving out any real discussion of their family lives and personal relationships, I suppose it was easier for Ricks to maintain his focus on these four and their interactions with one another—and their educations—but I’d have appreciated a more human, empathetic angle. I really do think this could have been done without so much more effort, without confusing his focus. If he can take the time to put in the scandalous accusations, he should have been able to devote a couple of pages for each of them on their family lives.

I’d expected to learn a bit more about the Classics in this book, but I do think Ricks managed to give us some important takeaways, such as that Cicero and Cato were considered the epitome of leadership, whereas today’s better-known Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great were then regarded more as the egomaniacal tyrants that they were. Makes sense to me. It’s also good to know that Catiline was the name commonly bandied about amongst our Founders as an insult—after many attempts by the murderous Catiline to overthrow the government, Cicero’s troops did kill him. Cicero was an institutionalist and fine orator, whereas Cato was fighting against corruption, if I have that straight.

It was good to gain an understanding of the American shift against Greek and Roman learning, which occurred around the time of the Revolution. Our Founders already had their educations, so their references that way continued, of course, but the newer generations saw far less reason to revere the ancient past. Classical learning was a fundamental bedrock for these forefathers, and yet these same studies were rejected almost as soon as the nation was founded.  Not altogether, I suppose. They still offered Latin as a matter of course into the 20^th century, but Ricks quoted Emerson as disparaging the Classical studies in preference to more modern writers, and I have to admit I was a bit like, “Well, yeah, I’d way rather read Emerson!” (see my significantly modified view on Emerson here).  Ricks also duly pointed out that there’s so much more for us to learn now, especially in the sciences, that we simply don’t have time for everything. I’m wondering, though, if a condensed study on Greco-Roman highlights would behoove our educations, our cultural literacy.  Maybe a single, focused course in high school?  I never appreciated Homer at all, but maybe I would a bit more in context.  And a basic concept of who Cicero, Cato, and Catiline were would give us hooks when we come across the Founding Fathers’ quotes, letters, and speeches.

In the latter part of First Principles, Ricks skims forward to changing attitudes and friction leading up to the Civil War. I do understand this, as the Civil War happened less than a century after the Revolution, but I was rather sorry not to hear more about other Founders and their Classical influences. That said, however, I am increasingly impressed at how close those two wars were, how there were even some people who lived through both.

I did take issue with Ricks’ assertion of how few families were officially members of churches, both at the Founding and in the 19^th century, his point being that religion seemed increasingly more important to the populace than Classical studies. I’m skeptical about the idea that our nation was ever so irreligious, though. In fact, I would have expected that the number of citizens who were members of churches to be nearer 100%, whereas Ricks suggests that it went from 1 in 6 up to 1 in 3 or so. I can hardly believe the numbers were so low, and I wonder if it’s merely an artifact of the people not caring for official records. At my parents’ church, a woman just officially joined in her late 80s, after realizing that she wasn’t technically a member of the church she’d attended her whole life; there had just never been much of a focus on ‘official’ memberships. Ricks seems a little out of touch on this topic, in my opinion.

At the very end of his book, Ricks can’t resist become more subjective, throwing in his personal insights with regards to our current political state (which I often agreed with, but not always). I suppose he’s completely within his rights to do that, but it felt a little extraneous and not pertinent to the theme of the book (though he tried to present his personal political views as takeaways).  I probably couldn’t have resisted, either, though...

Altogether, despite my critiques, I did appreciate this book for a focus I’ve long wished to know more about (those mysterious Greco-Roman influences on our Founders)—and for giving me a better idea of the distinct personalities of these first four presidents.  Thank you, Thomas E Ricks, for contributing to my cultural literacy.