John Adams

Born on a modest farm in Braintree, Massachusetts, Adams rose through law and politics to become known as the “Atlas of Independence.” He nominated George Washington to command the Continental Army, was the strongest voice in Congress for separation from Britain, and helped shepherd the Declaration of Independence to adoption. He drafted the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 (still the world’s oldest written constitution in continuous effect), negotiated Dutch recognition and loans, and co-authored the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. As the first vice president under Washington and then as president (1797–1801), he navigated the Quasi-War with France, signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and—most consequentially—accepted electoral defeat and ensured the first peaceful transfer of power to his rival Thomas Jefferson.

This biography follows Adams from his Puritan roots and lifelong partnership with the brilliant Abigail Smith through the Revolution, years of European diplomacy, the frustrations of the vice presidency, the crises of his own presidency, and a long retirement marked by reconciliation and correspondence with Jefferson. It portrays a complex, irascible, vain, and deeply principled man whose greatest service to the republic may have been his refusal to place personal power or party above the survival of the constitutional experiment itself.