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Maybe Larger Families Will Produce Better Leaders, as in the Early US

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Maybe Larger Families Will Produce Better Leaders, as in the Early US
An infant, with help from his father, walks across the floor towards his mother while his brothers and sisters watch, mid 1800s. Kean Collection/Getty Images
Michael Barone
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Commentary

Why was America in the Revolutionary War era, with 3 million people, able to generate leaders of the quality of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, while today’s America, with 333 million people, generates the likes of modern-day Presidents?

Michael Barone
Michael Barone
Author
Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and longtime co-author of “The Almanac of American Politics.” His new book, “Mental Maps of the Founders: How Geographic Imagination Guided America’s Revolutionary Leaders,” is now available.