Here a preeminent master of narrative history takes on the most fascinating of our founders to
create a benchmark for all Adams biographers With a keen eye for telling detail and a master
storyteller's instinct for human interest, McCullough (Truman; Mornings on Horseback) resurrects
the great Federalist (1735-1826), revealing in particular his restrained, sometimes off-putting
disposition, as well as his political guile

The events McCullough recounts are well-known, but with his astute marshaling of facts, the author
surpasses previous biographers in depicting Adams's years at Harvard, his early public life in
Boston and his role in the first Continental Congress, where he helped shape the philosophical basis
for the Revolution McCullough also makes vivid Adams's actions in the second Congress, during which
he was the first to propose George Washington to command the new Continental Army

Later on, we see Adams bickering with Tom Paine's plan for government as suggested in Common Sense,
helping push through the draft for the Declaration of Independence penned by his longtime friend and
frequent rival, Thomas Jefferson, and serving as commissioner to France and envoy to the Court of
St James's

The author is likewise brilliant in portraying Adams's complex relationship with Jefferson, who ousted
him from the White House in 1800 and with whom he would share a remarkable death date 26 years later:
July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration

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