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Name: First Principles
Rating: 4.3 (255 reviews)
Author: Thomas E. Ricks

Thomas E. Ricks

What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country

4.3 (255 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

First Principles by Thomas E. Ricks is a non-fiction book discussing how to think, act, and lead in our ever-changing world by returning to the foundational lessons of history, science, and philosophy.

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US Presidents US History Political Figures Western Philosophy

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First Principles
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What’s in it for me? See ancient Greece and Rome through the eyes of America’s founding fathers.

These days, the American education system doesn’t put much emphasis on Greek and Roman classics. Yet, the influence of ancient thought can still be felt in countless ways.

Head to America’s capital, Washington, DC, for instance, and you’ll see buildings designed in the classical style. Turn on the news, and you’ll hear talk of Republicans and Democrats: terms derived from Latin and Greek, respectively.

But Greece and Rome made an impact on America that goes well beyond esthetic choices and linguistics. The writings of the ancient world were central to the way America’s founders viewed their budding nation. In a time of national turmoil, it’s all-important for today’s Americans to revisit –⁠ and refocus –⁠ on their nation’s first principles.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

what George Washington’s favorite play was;
how John Adams and Roman politician Cicero were alike; and
why the Constitution is an Epicurean document.

Revolutionary Americans viewed the ancient Roman Republic as an exemplar of republican government.

Consider the word virtue. Today, it’s synonymous with morality. A little bit further in the past, it was used to describe female chastity. But in the time of America’s founding fathers, it had an entirely different definition. To them, virtue meant public-mindedness –⁠ the quality of putting the common good before self-interest.

Virtue was, of course, originally a Latin word. And it was one the founders were, if not obsessed with, at least deeply enamored by. In the compilation of Revolutionary-era writings in the US National Archives, the word “virtue” appears about six thousand times in total. Believe it or not, that’s more often than the word “freedom.” It’s clear the founders had classical principles in mind when building their new nation.

The key message here is: Revolutionary Americans viewed the ancient Roman Republic as an exemplar of republican government.

The modern idea of virtue is different from the one the founders had in mind. But their entire conception of the classical world was different, too.

Today works by Greek authors like Homer, Plato, and Herodotus are featured prominently on lists of great books. Romans, however, are comparatively neglected. In the Revolutionary era, it was the reverse: the Romans were revered, while the Greeks were often viewed as flighty and unstable.

Historical figures were also viewed through a different lens. Take the example of Cicero. Nowadays, the Roman is considered little more than a pompous blowhard. But America’s founders idolized Cicero as a highly skilled orator and successful leader.

Along with its thinkers, the Roman republican government was a lodestar for America’s founders. Just take Alexander Hamilton’s word for it. In the thirty-fourth volume of The Federalist Papers, he wrote that the Roman Republic had “attained to the utmost height of human greatness.” Of even greater interest than Rome’s flourishing was its demise: what, the founders wondered, had caused the erosion of the glorious empire?

As much as Rome inspired and guided the founders, it also occasionally steered them wrongly. The most troubling instance concerned the practice of slavery. Many of the founders saw human bondage as a natural part of the social order and used classical theories to justify it.

It’s plain to see that America’s founders were flawed men. Nevertheless, they successfully created a republic that continues to expand rights for more and more people. It’s worthwhile to examine the classical ideas at the forefront of their minds.

Washington sought to become a virtuous statesman and military general.

One of the most popular dramatic works in pre-Revolutionary America was a play called Cato. Today, the drama reads as stiff, plodding, and barely readable. Eighteenth-century audiences, though, enjoyed the lengthy speeches and quotable one-liners.

Cato was notable for another reason: it was George Washington’s favorite play. Its lead character⁠ was everything Washington strove to be. Cato was a paragon of virtue who rejected the luxuries afforded by his upper-class birth and spent his political life fighting against government corruption.

During the Revolutionary War, Washington embodied both Fabius and Cincinnatus.

Most Americans today know Washington as something of a military genius. But at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Washington still hadn’t figured out how to defeat the British. In fact, his early strategies failed completely.

First, Washington attempted to engage the British head-on. Thanks to the superior wealth, training, and numbers of the British army, this strategy was doomed from the start. After a year and a half of defeats, Washington heeded the advice of one of his best generals, Nathaniel Greene, and switched to a war of posts strategy. This is a defensive approach where an army retreats into a fortress and fights from there. This, too, was unsuccessful and resulted in expensive setbacks when thousands of troops surrendered to the British.

John Adams viewed himself as an American Cicero.

The Roman orator Cicero was born in 106 BC to parents of unremarkable birth. Though he began life as a plebian –⁠ a commoner –⁠ he eventually rose to become what Romans called a “new man”: someone who attained nobility by holding high office.

The height of Cicero’s career came in 63 BC when he was appointed one of Rome’s two consuls –⁠ the top political position in the empire. It was in this role that he confronted the Catiline conspiracy, a plot devised by the populist senator Catiline to overthrow the consulship of Rome. Through a series of powerful, grippingly emotional speeches, Cicero exposed the Catiline plot and eventually caused the senator to flee Rome.

Thomas Jefferson was inspired by the Greeks, particularly Epicurus.

Thomas Jefferson was different from the other founding fathers in many respects. He was esthetically minded: he played music, read widely, and designed architecture. And though the Romantic movement, which valued emotion over reason, hadn’t yet begun, we can easily view Jefferson as one of its forebears. He was passionate, emotional, and even illogical at times.

The Romantic movement was influenced greatly by the ancient Greeks. And so was Thomas Jefferson. He was the only founder who was arguably more Greek than Roman.

James Madison viewed the classics through an Enlightenment lens.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, the northwestern European nation of Scotland was experiencing an intellectual revolution.

The movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment occurred just as its neighbor, England, was going through a period of intellectual stagnation. Some estimates suggest that 75 percent of Scots could read in 1750, compared to just 53 percent of English people. At the time, English universities like Oxford were in decline, while those in Edinburgh and Glasgow modernized and flourished.

American classicism declined after the ratification of the Constitution.

There is a term we use today: loyal opposition. It describes the practice of questioning and criticizing those in power while still remaining loyal to the nation’s government.

The problem for America’s founders was that this term had not yet been invented. They had no political vocabulary to describe the potential for healthy political competition or partisanship. So they continued to view it in Roman terms. The Federalists, foremost among them John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, described their opponents –⁠ the anti-Federalists –⁠ as “Catilines”: traitors to the state.

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What is First Principles about?

Over the years, much has been made of the influence of Enlightenment ideas –⁠ particularly those of English philosopher John Locke –⁠ on America’s founding fathers. First Principles (2020) takes a different approach. It focuses instead on the ways in which Greek and Roman history and philosophy profoundly shaped the values and goals of America’s first four presidents, and how classical ideas are embedded in the nation to this day.

First Principles Review

First Principles (2020) explores the critical role of principled decision-making in shaping the course of history. Here's why this book is worth reading:

With its in-depth analysis of key historical figures and events, it offers a rich and fascinating exploration of the power of principled thinking.
Combining insightful research, interviews, and personal reflections, the book provides valuable insights into the process of making difficult decisions.
Its engaging storytelling and thought-provoking ideas ensure that readers will be captivated and never find the book boring.

Best quote from First Principles

Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. – John Adams.

—Thomas E. Ricks

Who should read First Principles?

Anyone interested in American history, or political philosophy
Students of Greek and Roman classics

About the Author

Thomas E. Ricks is a journalist who served as the Washington Post’s military correspondent from 2000 to 2008. Currently, he writes an award-winning blog for Foreign Policy magazine and serves as an adviser on national security at the organization New America. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the author of the best-selling book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.

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