First published 2001
John Adams sits in his study at Peacefield, his Quincy farm, surrounded by stacks of correspondence that will become his legacy. The second president, now in his twilight years, pours his thoughts onto paper with the same fierce intelligence that helped birth a nation. Through thousands of letters to friends, family, and fellow founders, Adams wrestles with the meaning of the American experiment he helped create. He reflects on his turbulent presidency, his complex friendship with Thomas Jefferson, and the republic's uncertain future. Ellis draws from this massive correspondence to reveal Adams as both the most self-aware and most candid of the founding fathers. The man who emerges is brilliant yet prickly, passionate yet philosophical, unafraid to examine his own failures alongside his triumphs. Adams confronts the gap between revolutionary ideals and political reality, questioning whether the nation he helped establish can survive its own contradictions. At its heart, this is the story of an aging patriot grappling with mortality while trying to understand what he and his generation truly accomplished.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, reflective, thought-provoking
Tropes: aging-protagonist, grappling-with-mortality
Setting: Peacefield, Quincy
Period: Twilight Years
277 pages · Paperback · W. W. Norton & Company