1) According to Ellis’s preface, what is so phenomenal about the founding of the United States?

This is my answer so don't use word for word:

First of all the United States won against the best army and navy of its time, which only happened because Britain did not fight to its full potential at the early stages of the revolution. Probably the biggest shocker though was that the America’s Republic survived, not because people thought that there was a lack of resources or anything else needed for survival, but because people thought there was a lack of a unifying entity, which was one of its biggest problems in its beginning for the US, organizing a national government. There were so many doubts because a republic was uncommon to nations compared to the common monarchs in those days