John Adams A Life

by Ferling, John

• ISBN13: 9780195398663
• ISBN10: 0195398661
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Love of Fame

Vanity Is My Cardinal Vice

Shall I Creep or Fly?

To Thine Own Self Be True

The Scene of Action

An Epocha in History

Tea that Bainful Weed

Until Our Rights Are Fully Restored

We Shall Do Something in Time

Oh That I Was a Soldier!

A Total Absolute Independence

To Leave This Station with Honour

Safe and Glorious in the Harbour of Peace

A Man of No Consequence

My Business Is Peace

Thus Drops the Curtain

High against America

One Man of Inflexible Integrity

Much to Be Grateful For

An Office of Hard Labor and Severe Duty

War Is Inexpedient

Thunderstruck

The Seeds of Discontent and Division

I Still Live and Enjoy Life

A Retired Hermetical Life

A Heavy Burden to Carry

Afterword

Abbreviations

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.