John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were two of America's most recognizable figures— one short and blunt, the other tall and reserved; one from Puritan Massachusetts, the other from the Virginia frontier. Yet these two Founders, who served as the nation's second and third presidents, forged one of the most remarkable intellectual partnerships in history, exchanging 329 letters over nearly five decades. Together they shaped the republic, argued over its soul, and, in one of history's most astonishing coincidences, died on the very same day — July 4, 1826 — the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson:

In Retirement, Their Times, and Today draws on their rich correspondence to illuminate the final chapters of two extraordinary lives. Far from fading into quiet old age, Adams and Jefferson remained fiercely engaged — debating the nature of government, the fate of democracy, the burdens of aging, and the future of a nation they had helped birth. Authors Robert C. Baron, Ed Nichols, and Donald Yale bring these towering figures into vivid relief, asking what their hard-won wisdom might mean for America today, and what they would make of the country they left behind.