Friends Divided

<b><b>A&#160;<i>New York Times Book Review&#160;</i>Notable Book of 2017</b><br><br>From the great historian of the American Revolution <i>New York Times</i>-bestselling and Pulitzer-winning Gordon Wood comes a majestic dual biography of two of America's most enduringly fascinating figures whose partnership helped birth a nation and whose subsequent falling out did much to fix its course.</b><br><br>Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds or been more different in temperament. Jefferson the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion was an aristocratic Southern slaveowner while Adams the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes painfully aware he was no aristocrat was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution crafting the Declaration of Independence and leading with Franklin the diplomatic effort that brought France into the fight. But ultimately their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis in their friendship and in the nation writ large as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces the first American political parties. It was a bitter breach lasting through the presidential administrations of both men and beyond.&#160;<br><br>But late in life something remarkable happened: these two men were nudged into reconciliation. What started as a grudging trickle of correspondence became a great flood and a friendship was rekindled over the course of hundreds of letters. In their final years they were the last surviving founding fathers and cherished their role in this mighty young republic as it approached the half century mark in 1826. At last on the afternoon of July 4th 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration Adams let out a sigh and said At least Jefferson still lives. He died soon thereafter. In fact a few hours earlier on that same day far to the south in his home in Monticello Jefferson died as well.&#160;<br><br>Arguably no relationship in this country's history carries as much freight as that of John Adams of Massachusetts and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Gordon Wood has more than done justice to these entwined lives and their meaning; he has written a magnificent new addition to America's collective story.