10 Secrets Behind the Founding Fathers’ Favorite Books

John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government – The Blueprint for American Liberty

Here’s something that might blow your mind: Thomas Jefferson called Locke one of the “three greatest men that have ever lived,” alongside Bacon and Newton. This wasn’t just casual admiration – it was pure intellectual worship. Locke’s Second Treatise of Government introduced the revolutionary idea that humans have natural rights and form a “social contract” to create government that protects those rights. Jefferson didn’t just read this book; he practically memorized it. When he wrote that famous line about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, he was channeling Locke’s concept of natural rights to “life, liberty, and property.” The secret here is that America’s entire foundation rests on ideas from a 17th-century English philosopher who believed government should serve the people, not the other way around.

Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws – The Architecture of American Democracy

According to political scientist Donald Lutz, Montesquieu was the most frequently quoted authority on government and politics in colonial pre-revolutionary British America, cited more by the American founders than any source except for the Bible. Think about that for a second – this French baron was more influential than any other political thinker in shaping America. Montesquieu divided political authority into legislative, executive, and judicial powers, asserting that these three powers must be confided to different individuals or bodies, acting independently. His philosophy that “government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another” reminded Madison and others that a free and stable foundation required a clearly defined and balanced separation of powers. Without Montesquieu, we might have ended up with a very different – and probably much more dangerous – form of government.

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations – The Economic Soul of a New Nation

Published in the same year as the Declaration of Independence, Adam Smith’s masterwork became the secret weapon in America’s economic arsenal. Alexander Hamilton practically used it as his playbook when designing America’s financial system, including the controversial First Bank of the United States. But here’s the fascinating twist: the founders had read influential textbooks of the time, as well as writings from the ancient period and the Enlightenment, including Adam Smith. Hamilton and Jefferson ended up on completely opposite sides of Smith’s ideas – Hamilton embraced the industrial vision while Jefferson favored agrarian ideals. This philosophical split would define American politics for generations. Smith’s concepts of free markets and the “invisible hand” weren’t just economic theory; they became the foundation of American capitalism, even though the founders couldn’t agree on how to implement them.

Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans – Ancient Heroes for Modern Patriots

Imagine learning about leadership by reading the biographies of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Cicero. That’s exactly what the Founding Fathers did with Plutarch’s ancient masterpiece. The first four presidents were influenced by the classical Greeks and Romans, and when they found few insightful answers from colonial thinkers, they reached back to the classical world. John Adams wrote that reading Plutarch made him feel “the sensations of virtue” – pretty powerful stuff from a guy who would become president. The secret influence here is profound: the Founders literally saw themselves as modern versions of Roman senators and Greek philosophers. They weren’t just creating a new country; they were trying to recreate the civic virtue and republican ideals of ancient civilizations. Every time they made a difficult decision, they asked themselves: “What would Cicero do?”

Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England – The Legal DNA of America

Here’s an ironic twist that would make any revolutionary chuckle: while the Founders were busy rebelling against British rule, they were simultaneously using British legal principles to build their new nation. Blackstone’s Commentaries became the go-to legal textbook for early American lawyers, including John Marshall, who would become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The secret here is in the contradiction – many Founders cited Blackstone to argue against British tyranny while still relying heavily on English common law. It’s like using your ex’s recipe book to cook dinner while complaining about them. This book shaped how American courts would operate, how laws would be interpreted, and how justice would be administered. Without Blackstone, our legal system would look completely different today.

Cato’s Letters – The Revolutionary Handbook Hidden in Plain Sight

Most people have never heard of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, but their pseudonymous “Cato’s Letters” were like political dynamite in colonial America. These essays, written under the name of the ancient Roman Cato, attacked corruption and defended liberty with such ferocity that they became the underground bestseller of the revolutionary generation. Benjamin Franklin, always the savvy media mogul, reprinted them in his newspaper, spreading these revolutionary ideas like wildfire. The secret influence here is that these letters taught the Founders to deeply distrust centralized power and to always be suspicious of government corruption. Every time you hear about checks and balances or worry about government overreach, you’re channeling the spirit of Cato’s Letters. These essays were basically the political punk rock of the 18th century.

Virgil’s Aeneid – The Epic That Inspired an Empire

Picture this: Latin-educated Founding Fathers sitting around quoting ancient Roman poetry while planning a revolution. That’s exactly what happened with Virgil’s Aeneid, the epic tale of Aeneas founding Rome after the fall of Troy. Jefferson was “arguably more Greek than Roman, more Epicurean than Ciceronian,” but he still frequently quoted Virgil in his letters. The Founders saw themselves as modern Aeneases, fleeing the corruption of the Old World to establish a new republic in the wilderness. This wasn’t just literary pretension – it was a deeply held belief that America was destined to become a new Rome, but one that would avoid the mistakes of the original. The secret here is that America’s manifest destiny and sense of exceptionalism can be traced directly back to a 2,000-year-old poem about Trojan refugees.

Cicero’s On Duties – The Moral Compass of the Revolution

Marcus Tullius Cicero wasn’t just an ancient Roman orator; he was the moral philosopher who shaped George Washington’s personal code of honor. John Adams called Cicero “the model of oratory and eloquence,” and Adams aspired to be “the Cicero of his time”. Cicero’s ideas about moral leadership, civic duty, and the responsibility of public servants became the ethical foundation of American governance. When Washington voluntarily stepped down after two terms as president, he was following Cicero’s example of putting the republic before personal ambition. The secret influence here runs deep: every time an American politician talks about public service or moral leadership, they’re echoing principles that Cicero laid out over 2,000 years ago. This ancient Roman’s ideas about duty and honor became the DNA of American political culture.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense – The Pamphlet That Ignited a Revolution

Sometimes the most powerful books are the shortest ones. Thomas Paine’s 47-page pamphlet “Common Sense” was the literary equivalent of lighting a match in a room full of gunpowder. Published in January 1776, it sold over 120,000 copies in just three months – in a country with only 2.5 million people. That’s like a book selling 15 million copies today in three months. Washington had it read aloud to his troops to boost morale, and it convinced many reluctant colonists that independence wasn’t just possible but necessary. The secret here is that Paine wrote in plain, everyday language that ordinary people could understand, unlike the scholarly tomes the other Founders were reading. He didn’t quote Latin or reference ancient philosophers; he just made simple, devastating arguments for why kings were ridiculous and independence was inevitable.

The Bible – The Spiritual Foundation of a Secular Nation

Here’s where things get really interesting: while not all Founders were deeply religious, biblical themes of covenant, justice, and liberation shaped their revolutionary rhetoric in profound ways. The story of Exodus – a chosen people escaping tyranny to find freedom in a promised land – became the template for America’s origin story. Benjamin Franklin, hardly known for his piety, actually proposed that the Great Seal of the United States should depict Moses parting the Red Sea. The secret influence here is that even the most secular Founders understood the power of biblical imagery and used it to justify their revolution. They may have been creating a nation with separation of church and state, but they weren’t shy about using religious language when it served their purposes. The Bible gave them a moral framework for rebellion and a vision of America as a promised land.

The Hidden Network of Ideas That Built America

The Founding Fathers made it clear what authors and texts had influenced their thinking on liberty, with research showing the “top 40” texts by frequency of citation by the founding generation. What’s remarkable is how these books from different centuries and cultures all came together in the minds of a few dozen men in Philadelphia. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson drew up lists of key texts, and Jefferson actually donated his personal library twice to Congress to create the beginnings of what is now the Library of Congress. The secret network here is that ideas don’t respect borders or time periods – ancient Roman philosophy mixed with Enlightenment science, Christian theology blended with secular political theory, and British legal principles merged with revolutionary ideals. The Founding Fathers weren’t just politicians; they were intellectual DJs, sampling the greatest hits of human thought to create something entirely new.

What’s truly mind-blowing is that these men were reading the same books we can read today, yet they used them to create something the world had never seen before. Did you expect that a bunch of 18th-century rebels would be so deeply influenced by ancient Romans and French philosophers?