Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson By Gordon S. Wood

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A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017From the great historian of the American Revolution, New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer-winning Gordon Wood, comes a majestic dual biography of two of America's most enduringly fascinating figures, whose partnership helped birth a nation, and whose subsequent falling out did much to fix its course.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 slaveowner, 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 in the nation writ large, 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. At last, on the afternoon of July 4th, 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration, Adams let out a sigh and said, "At least Jefferson still lives." He died soon thereafter. In fact, a few hours earlier on that same day, far to the south in his home in Monticello, Jefferson died as well. 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.

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Just when it seemed probable that Gordon Wood, the much decorated historian of the early days of the American Republic, would have run out of material after writing eight marvelous histories of this period, here comes yet another. Friends Divided is an absolute home run. It is readable, informative, even exciting at times. It breaks no new ground but it persuasively presents the strengths and weaknesses of two of the most important figures of the founding of our country: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.Adams of course is relentlessly serious and determined. He is vastly well read, a marvelous political thinker, ambitious, argumentative, and even at times venomous. He takes offense easily, his feelings are never hidden. He argues his side of an issue as if it were the most important argument of his life. But in the end he is careful and effective as a senator and then as the second President of the country. As the political parties began to take early shape after the Revolution, Adams emerges as one of the leaders of the Federalist party.Jefferson is quite the opposite in so many ways. He is an epicurean, at times more interested in his collection of expensive French wines than matters of state, wonderfully articulate, charming, and always trusting in the essential worth and promise of the American experiment in self government. In a very close election, with only eight electoral college votes separating them, Jefferson became the third president of the United States. He is the leader of an opposite political party, what was then called the Republicans.These two men, different in so many ways, believed in the promise of America. In their later lives, long lives by any standard, they corresponded regularly. This correspondence convinced each of them that the other had remarkable gifts, unseen earlier in their careers. This close relationship, almost entirely contained in a full library of letters between the two of them, ended only on their deaths. Amazingly, both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson’s magnificent explanation of the reasons for the American revolt against British rule.Woods chooses to name Jefferson as the more important of these two men in terms of their impact on the shape of the American experiment. He argues his case well but, in this reader’s opinion, fails to place one final weight on the scale: in the end, he chooses to ignore Jefferson’s ownership of slaves and even his lengthy sexual exploitation of a black woman. Jefferson’s other gifts are, without question, remarkable but his treatment of black Americans must be seen for what it was: reprehensible.

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