Books in Brief

ERIC BURNS-the slyly intelligent host of the mediacriticism show Fox News Watch-has been writing what by now amounts to an impressive mini-bookshelf of works on American history. His latest book, Virtue, Valor, & Vanity: The Founding Fathers and the Pursuit of Fame (Arcade, 239 pp., $25), is an interesting examination of the psychology of the Founders-who, as statesmen-politicians, had an ambivalent attitude toward what Shakespeare called “the bubble reputation.” Burns writes that “the Founders sought a kind of fame we do not know today,” one based neither on notoriety nor on reckless heroism but on an ideal of public-spirited virtue that had its roots in the Roman Republic. He praises them judiciously for “the communality of their vision, the breadth of their insight, and the humility of their actions.”

About the Author

Michael Potemra

Michael Potemra was a literary editor for National Review.

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ERIC BURNS-the slyly intelligent host of the mediacriticism show Fox News Watch-has been writing what by now amounts to an impressive mini-bookshelf of works on American history. His latest book, Virtue, Valor, & Vanity: The Founding Fathers and the Pursuit of Fame (Arcade, 239 pp., $25), is an interesting examination of the psychology of the Founders-who, as statesmen-politicians, had an ambivalent attitude toward what Shakespeare called “the bubble reputation.” Burns writes that “the Founders sought a kind of fame we do not know today,” one based neither on notoriety nor on reckless heroism but on an ideal of public-spirited virtue that had its roots in the Roman Republic. He praises them judiciously for “the communality of their vision, the breadth of their insight, and the humility of their actions.”