03446cam a2200421 i 4500 333845753 TxAuBib 20171128120000.0 170601s2017||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2017025116 9780735224711 0735224714 (OCoLC)973087458 TxAuBib rda Wood, Gordon S. Friends divided : John Adams and Thomas Jefferson / Gordon S. Wood. New York : Penguin Press, 2017. ℗2017. 502 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier sti rdacontent rdamedia rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 437-484) and index. Prologue: The eulogies -- Contrasts -- Careers, wives, and other women -- The imperial crisis -- Independence -- Missions abroad -- Constitutions -- The French Revolution -- Federalists and Republicans -- The President vs. the Vice President -- The Jeffersonian Revolution of 1800 -- Reconciliation -- The great reversal -- The national jubilee. "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 slave owner, 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 writ large in the nation, 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. 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. ... 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."--Dust jacket flaps. 20171128. Jefferson, Thomas 1743-1826. Adams, John 1735-1826. United States Politics and government. Presidents United States Biography. Founding Fathers of the United States Biography. Friendship. Politics and government United States Biography. Biographies.