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It was a contest of titans: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two
heroes of the Revolutionary era, once intimate friends, now icy
antagonists locked in a fierce battle for the future of the United
States. The election of 1800 was a thunderous clash of a campaign
that climaxed in a deadlock in the Electoral College and led to a
crisis in which the young republic teetered on the edge of
collapse. Adams vs. Jefferson is a gripping account of a true
turning point in American history, a dramatic struggle between two
parties with profoundly different visions of how the nation should
be governed. Adams led the Federalists, conservatives who favored a
strong central government, and Jefferson led the Republicans,
egalitarians who felt the Federalists had betrayed the Revolution
of 1776 and were backsliding toward monarchy. The campaign itself
was a barroom brawl every bit as ruthless as any modern contest,
with mud-slinging-Federalists called Jefferson "a howling
atheist"-scare tactics, and backstabbing. The low point came when
Alexander Hamilton printed a devastating attack on Adams, the head
of his own party, in "fifty-four pages of unremitting
vilification." The election ended in a stalemate in the Electoral
College that dragged on for days and nights and through dozens of
ballots. Tensions ran so high that the Republicans threatened civil
war if the Federalists denied Jefferson the presidency. Finally a
secret deal that changed a single vote gave Jefferson the White
House. A devastated Adams left Washington before dawn on
Inauguration Day, too embittered even to shake his rival's hand.
Jefferson's election, John Ferling concludes, consummated the
American Revolution, assuring the democratization of the United
States and its true separation from Britain. With magisterial
command, Ferling brings to life both the outsize personalities and
the hotly contested political questions at stake. He shows not just
why this moment was a milestone in U.S. history, but how strongly
the issues-and the passions-of 1800 resonate with our own time.
From acclaimed historian John Ferling, the story of Thomas
Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and James Monroe's involvement in the
American and French Revolutions and their quest for sweeping change
in both America and Europe. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and
James Monroe hazarded all in quest of revolutions. As founding
fathers, they risked their lives and their liberty for American
independence, and as reformers, each rejoiced at the opportunity to
be part of the French Revolution, praying that it in turn would
inspire others to sweep away Europe's monarchies and titled
nobilities. For these three men, real revolution would lead to
substantive political and social alterations and an escape from
royal and aristocratic rule. But as the eighteenth century
unfolded, these three separated onto different routes to
revolution-two became soldiers, two became writers, and two became
statesmen-and their united cause but divided means reshaped their
country and the Western world. Apostles of Revolution spans a
crucial time in Western Civilization. The era ranged from the
American insurgency against Great Britain to the Declaration of
Independence, from desperate engagements on American battlefields
to the bloody Terror in France. It culminates with the tumultuous
election of 1800, the outcome of which - according to Jefferson -
saved the American Revolution. Written as a sweeping narrative of a
turbulent and pivotal era, Apostles of the Revolution captures the
spirit of our founding fathers and the history of America and
Europe's great turning point.
From the award-winning author of "Almost a Miracle" and "The Ascent
of George Washington," this is the rare work of scholarship that
offers us irresistible human drama even as it enriches our
understanding of deep themes in our nation's history. The decade of
the 1790s has been called the "age of passion." Fervor ran high as
rival factions battled over the course of the new republic--each
side convinced that the other's goals would betray the legacy of
the Revolution so recently fought and so dearly won. All understood
as well that what was at stake was not a moment's political
advantage, but the future course of the American experiment in
democracy. In this epochal debate, no two figures loomed larger
than Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Both men were
visionaries, but their visions of what the United States should be
were diametrically opposed. "Jefferson and Hamilton" is the story
of the fierce struggle--both public and, ultimately, bitterly
personal--between these two titans. It ended only with the death of
Hamilton in a pistol duel, felled by Aaron Burr, Jefferson's vice
president. Their competing legacies, like the twin strands of DNA,
continue to shape our country to this day. Their personalities,
their passions, and their bold dreams for America leap from the
page in this epic new work from one of our finest historians.
In this gripping chronicle of America's struggle for independence,
award-winning historian John Ferling transports readers to the grim
realities of that war, capturing an eight-year conflict filled with
heroism, suffering, cowardice, betrayal, and fierce dedication. As
Ferling demonstrates, it was a war that America came much closer to
losing than is now usually remembered. General George Washington
put it best when he said that the American victory was "little
short of a standing miracle."
Almost a Miracle offers an illuminating portrait of America's
triumph, offering vivid descriptions of all the major engagements,
from the first shots fired on Lexington Green to the surrender of
General Cornwallis at Yorktown, revealing how these battles often
hinged on intangibles such as leadership under fire, heroism, good
fortune, blunders, tenacity, and surprise. Ferling paints
sharp-eyed portraits of the key figures in the war, including
General Washington and other American officers and civilian
leaders. Some do not always measure up to their iconic reputations,
including Washington himself. The book also examines the many
faceless men who soldiered, often for years on end, braving untold
dangers and enduring abounding miseries. The author explains why
they served and sacrificed, and sees them as the forgotten heroes
who won American independence.
It was an age of fascinating leaders and difficult choices, of
grand ideas eloquently expressed and of epic conflicts bitterly
fought. Now comes a brilliant portrait of the American Revolution,
one that is compelling in its prose, fascinating in its details,
and provocative in its fresh interpretations.
In A Leap in the Dark, John Ferling offers a magisterial new
history that surges from the first rumblings of colonial protest to
the volcanic election of 1800. Ferling's swift-moving narrative
teems with fascinating details. We see Benjamin Franklin trying to
decide if his loyalty was to Great Britain or to America, and we
meet George Washington when he was a shrewd planter-businessman who
discovered personal economic advantages to American independence.
We encounter those who supported the war against Great Britain in
1776, but opposed independence because it was a "leap in the dark."
Following the war, we hear talk in the North of secession from the
United States. The author offers a gripping account of the most
dramatic events of our history, showing just how closely fought
were the struggle for independence, the adoption of the
Constitution, and the later battle between Federalists and
Democratic-Republicans. Yet, without slowing the flow of events, he
has also produced a landmark study of leadership and ideas. Here is
all the erratic brilliance of Hamilton and Jefferson battling to
shape the new nation, and here too is the passion and political
shrewdness of revolutionaries, such as Samuel Adams and Patrick
Henry, and their Loyalist counterparts, Joseph Galloway and Thomas
Hutchinson. Here as well are activists who are not so well known
today, men like Abraham Yates, who battled for democratic change,
and Theodore Sedgwick, who fought to preserve the political and
social system of the colonial past. Ferling shows that throughout
this period the epic political battles often resembled today's
politics and the politicians--the founders--played a political
hardball attendant with enmities, selfish motivations, and
bitterness. The political stakes, this book demonstrates, were
extraordinary: first to secure independence, then to determine the
meaning of the American Revolution.
John Ferling has shown himself to be an insightful historian of our
Revolution, and an unusually skillful writer. A Leap in the Dark is
his masterpiece, work that provokes, enlightens, and entertains in
full measure.
Setting the World Ablaze is a biographical study of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson and their struggle to erect a new nation. The three sections of Ferling's study chronologically examine major epochs in the lives of the three men: youth and early adulthood, the years surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and finally, defeat of the British in the Revolutionary War.
Following a long and distinguished public career, John Adams had a
turbulent presidency. Sandwiched between the presidencies of
Washington and Jefferson, Adams received less attention from
contemporary writers. Since the 1960s, however, scholars have begun
to turn their attention to John Adams. This bibliography provides
access to both primary sources and the secondary literature on John
Adams. The volume also includes a short chronology of Adams' life
and author and subject indexes.
The World Turned Upside Down is a collection of original essays
dealing with various aspects of the American victory in the War of
Independence. Each contributor, through examination of a particular
topic, attempts to explain why the American colonists won the war,
or why Great Britain lost. Reflecting the benefits of the
impressive scholarship of the past fifty years, the objective of
the essays is not only to synthesize the disparate strands within
earlier studies, but, through fresh research, to offer new insights
into the outcome of this conflict. Virtually every facet is
considered, from the leaders to the common soldiers, from land
warfare to naval engagements, from the eastern theater to the
western frontier fighting, from logistical considerations to
political matters, and from domestic concerns to the international
ramifications of the war. This is the first collection published in
the last twenty five years that focuses on the one paramount
question: Why did the colonists win the War of Independence? It
enriches our understanding not only of the complexities of the
worldwide struggle that erupted in 1775, but of the many factors
which led the diplomats in Paris in 1782-83 to recognize the
reality of the American victory. This book will be of particular
interest to those engaged in the study of American history, U.S.
military history, and the American Revolution.
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