John Adams: A Life - Softcover

John Ferling

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195398661 ISBN 13: 9780195398663

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

John Ferling has nearly forty years of experience as a historian of early America. The author of acclaimed histories such as A Leap into the Dark and Almost a Miracle, he has appeared on many TV and film documentaries on this pivotal period of our history. In John Adams: A Life, Ferling offers a compelling portrait of one of the giants of the Revolutionary era.

Drawing on extensive research, Ferling depicts a reluctant revolutionary, a leader who was deeply troubled by the warfare that he helped to make, and a fiercely independent statesman. The book brings to life an exciting time, an age in which Adams played an important political and intellectual role. Indeed, few were more instrumental in making American independence a reality. He performed yeoman's service in the Continental Congress during the revolution and was a key figure in negotiating the treaty that brought peace following the long War of Independence. He held the highest office in the land and as president he courageously chose to pursue a course that he thought best for the nation, though it was fraught with personal political dangers. Adams emerges here a man full of contradictions. He could be petty and jealous, but also meditative, insightful, and provocative. In private and with friends he could be engagingly witty. He was terribly self-centered, but in his relationship with his wife and children his shortcomings were tempered by a deep, abiding love.

John Ferling's masterful John Adams: A Life is a singular biography of the man who succeeded George Washington in the presidency and shepherded the fragile new nation through the most dangerous of times.

About this title

About the Author:

John Ferling is the author of nine books and numerous articles on the American Revolution and early American wars, and has appeared in four television documentaries devoted to the Revolution and the War of Independence. His book A Leap in the Dark won the Fraunces Tavern Book Award as the year's best book on the American Revolution and Almost a Miracle was named the New York American Revolution Round Table Best Book of 2007. He lives in metropolitan Atlanta.

Review:

"Better than any other full-scale biography to date, Ferling's book places Adams in the context of his swirling times and makes clear why he deserves our admiration for his political courage and stubborn independence."--Joseph J. Ellis, The New England Quarterly

"A comprehensive and readable exploration of a fascinating and important statesman, whose life continues to remind us that honesty, integrity, and independence can be political virtues."--William and Mary Quarterly

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0195398661
• ISBN 13: 9780195398663
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 535