I love that idea that we have mythologized these. Unfortunately, as adults, we like children's stories too. So the idea of trying to bring these characters and the story itself into a more nuanced telling is a beautiful thing. And there are times when even people at a college age, and I teach at an undergraduate college, 18 to 22, still are predisposed to see things in highly moralistic terms.
Joseph Ellis, of Mt. Holyoke College and author of American Creation, talks about the triumphs and tragedies of the founding of the United States. His goal in the book and in this podcast is to tell a story for grownups rather than for children, where the Founders are neither saints nor evil white, patriarchal slave-holding demons. It is a nuanced story of triumph--a military victory over a seemingly unbeatable vastly more experienced army, the creation of the first geographically large republic, a nation without a state religion, a nation that creates a party system with a loyal opposition, a Constitution with the virtues of ambiguous sovereignty, and tragedy--the failure to resolve the slavery issue, and the tragic conflict with the Native Americans. Some of these outcomes were intended by the Founders, others emerged unintended.