This clash profoundly influenced the next two centuries of America's history and persists in the present day. His non-fiction book included Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers The Great Divide. At its root were two sharply different visions of the nation's future.Īcclaimed historian Thomas Fleming examines how the differing characters and leadership styles of Washington and Jefferson shaped two opposing views of the presidency - and the nation. It also involved the nation's foreign policy, the role of merchants and farmers in a republic, and the durability of the union. Their disagreement centered on the highest, most original public office created by the Constitutional Convention: the presidency. The Great Divide: The Conflict between Washington and Jefferson that Defined a Nation by Thomas Fleming. The clash between these two gifted men, both of whom cared deeply about the United States of America, profoundly influenced the next two centuries of America. Now, Fleming takes on perhaps the two most iconic figures of the American Founding, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, in The Great Divide, and talks about how their nearly polar opposite.

History tends to cast the early years of America in a glow of camaraderie when there were, in fact ,many conflicts between the Founding Fathers - none more important than the one between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Acclaimed historian Thomas Fleming examines how the differing temperaments and leadership styles of Washington and Jefferson shaped two opposing views of the presidency - and the nation.

The great divide by thomas fleming