An esteemed group of scholars examines the lives and legacies of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on the bicentennial of their death.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died hours apart on July 4, 1826—exactly fifty years after they drafted the Declaration of Independence. Adams and Jefferson were undoubtedly two of the most important and consequential Founders. And yet, two hundred years after their passing, they remain the subject of intense discussion as Americans continue to assess their legacy in relation to the nation’s identity and future.
To mark the bicentennial of the passing of Adams and Jefferson—and the 250th anniversary of the United States of America—this volume brings together some of the most important scholars of the early republic to offer new and original insights into their lives and legacies. Thematic essays explore their presidencies, their disagreements about the meaning and value of democracy, and their views on education, religion, and science. Important and controversial topics, including the idea of natural aristocracy and the problem of slavery, are considered as well.
Beginning with an introduction by Gordon Wood, this masterful volume includes essays by Luke Mayville, Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Peter Onuf, Richard A. Ryerson, Darren Staloff, Brian Steele, George Thomas, Bradley Thompson, Lee Ward, and Jean Yarbrough. The book concludes with a three-act play about the Adams-Jefferson relationship coauthored by Michael Zuckert.
About the Author :
Lee Ward is professor of political science at Baylor University. He is the author of several books, including John Locke and Modern Life and Recovering Classical Liberal Political Economy: Natural Rights and the Harmony of Interests.
Michael P. Zuckert is Dreux Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and Clinical Professor at Arizona State University. He was the founding editor of the journal American Political Thought. He is the author of many books, including A Nation So Conceived: Abraham Lincoln and the Paradox of Democratic Sovereignty, also from Kansas.
Review :
"The decades-long rivalry and friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson is as fascinating as it is instructive. This fine volume of essays, from an all-star cast of scholars, is a fitting way to mark the two hundredth anniversary of their famously well-timed deaths."—Dennis C. Rasmussen, author of The Constitution’s Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America’s Basic Charter
"The Adams-Jefferson story has been told many times, in historical scholarship and in American folklore. But that story is often told in a schematic and oversimplified way. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the Founding of America makes the Adams-Jefferson story fresh again. These essays invite the reader to think anew about the questions and problems that Adams and Jefferson faced, both individually and in dialogue with one another."—James H. Read, author of Sovereign of a Free People: Abraham Lincoln, Majority Rule, and Slavery
"This timely collection brings John Adams and Thomas Jefferson into sustained conversation with one another and with us. Edited by two of the foremost scholars of American political thought, it offers fresh, nuanced insights into the ideas, tensions, and legacies that shaped the American founding."—Justin B. Dyer, coauthor of The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding
"First, revolutionaries and friends, then political enemies, and then friends again, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams played pivotal roles in the American Revolution and the Early American Republic. This powerful essay collection from leading historians explores their extraordinary relationship with erudition, insight, and creativity. A great addition to Jefferson and Adams scholarship."—Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
"Written by some of the most accomplished scholars of the American Founding, the collection of essays in John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Founding of America reexamines a range of issues on Jefferson and Adams’s political thought, their famously tumultuous but productive relationship with each other, and their influence on the development and contemporary character of American democracy. A must-read for Founding specialists, this volume will interest and entertain experts and general readers alike with its relentlessly provocative insights into how Jefferson and Adams persist in what, for better and occasionally worse, America has become."—Alan Gibson, author of Interpreting the Founding: Guide to the Enduring Debates over the Origins and Foundations of the American Republic and Understanding the Founding: The Crucial Questions
"As Americans commemorate the 250th anniversary of declaring independence, there is no better time to revisit the lives, writings, rivalry, and friendship of two of our most influential founders. In John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Founding of America, Lee Ward, Michael Zuckert, and an all-star company of contributors shine new light on well-known words, reintroducing readers to the men whose ideas and arguments are still shaping America to this day."—Cara Rogers Stevens, Ashland University, author of Thomas Jefferson and the Fight Against Slavery
