18th century America
A01=Scott S. Greenberger
abolition of slavery
American democracy
American founding era
American history
American Revolution
anti-slavery advocacy
Author_Scott S. Greenberger
Category=DNBH
Category=NHK
Category=NHTR
Category=NHTS
Category=NHTV
complex legacies
Constitutional Convention
diplomacy
early American politics
early American society
economic development
economic infrastructure
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Erie Canal
European politics
Federalist
forthcoming
Founding Fathers
French Revolution
George Washington
Gouverneur Morris
Great Lakes
historical context
historical contributions
historical figures
historical insights
Hudson River
liberty and justice
moral conviction
moral integrity
New York
political challenges
political foresight
political independence
political vision
Preamble
sectional conflict
U.S. Constitution
Product details
- ISBN 9781668094945
- Weight: 515g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 08 Oct 2026
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Uncover the little-known story of Gouverneur Morris, the brilliant yet overlooked Founding Father whose visionary ideas from writing key components of the US Constitution to helping create America’s first bank to holding an unwavering stance against slavery shaped the nation’s future.
When George Washington and the Continental Army faced starvation, he turned to Gouverneur Morris to help devise a plan to provision the troops. When the fledgling nation needed a financial system to sustain the Revolution, Morris again was called upon to help design its first national bank and currency. When the compromises between North and South, large states and small, had to be stitched into a single governing document, the task of shaping the Constitution’s final language fell largely to him. At the Constitutional Convention, Morris spoke more often than any delegate save James Madison—and more forcefully against slavery. When Alexander Hamilton died in a tragic duel, his widow insisted that Hamilton’s closest friend, Gouverneur Morris, deliver the eulogy.
Morris continued to serve the republic after its founding as envoy to France during the Revolution and Reign of Terror, and as an early visionary who grasped that New York, not Philadelphia, could become the nation’s economic capital if a canal opened the interior to the sea.
And yet, despite these achievements, Morris’s legacy is little known today. In this deeply researched biography, The Forsaken Founder, Scott Greenberger restores this indispensable figure to history and asks why one of the most prescient and principled founders faded from memory. Was it his uncompromising opposition to slavery? His unapologetic aristocratic style? His belief that liberty required structure as well as passion?
Moving from the battlefields of the American Revolution to the salons of Paris and the blood-soaked streets of the French Revolution, this book restores Morris to his rightful place in history. It is the story of a man admired by giants, resisted by factions, and ultimately forsaken by memory—and of a republic still grappling with the truths he dared to speak.
When George Washington and the Continental Army faced starvation, he turned to Gouverneur Morris to help devise a plan to provision the troops. When the fledgling nation needed a financial system to sustain the Revolution, Morris again was called upon to help design its first national bank and currency. When the compromises between North and South, large states and small, had to be stitched into a single governing document, the task of shaping the Constitution’s final language fell largely to him. At the Constitutional Convention, Morris spoke more often than any delegate save James Madison—and more forcefully against slavery. When Alexander Hamilton died in a tragic duel, his widow insisted that Hamilton’s closest friend, Gouverneur Morris, deliver the eulogy.
Morris continued to serve the republic after its founding as envoy to France during the Revolution and Reign of Terror, and as an early visionary who grasped that New York, not Philadelphia, could become the nation’s economic capital if a canal opened the interior to the sea.
And yet, despite these achievements, Morris’s legacy is little known today. In this deeply researched biography, The Forsaken Founder, Scott Greenberger restores this indispensable figure to history and asks why one of the most prescient and principled founders faded from memory. Was it his uncompromising opposition to slavery? His unapologetic aristocratic style? His belief that liberty required structure as well as passion?
Moving from the battlefields of the American Revolution to the salons of Paris and the blood-soaked streets of the French Revolution, this book restores Morris to his rightful place in history. It is the story of a man admired by giants, resisted by factions, and ultimately forsaken by memory—and of a republic still grappling with the truths he dared to speak.
Scott S. Greenberger is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis and author of The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur. Currently the executive editor of Stateline, he has been a newspaper reporter at the Austin American-Statesman and The Boston Globe. He has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, and GQ. Greenberger has a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and a master’s degree in international relations from George Washington University. He lives in Takoma Park, Maryland.
