![]() ![]() ![]() Wood: Jefferson was by far the better, more lucid writer, especially in composing public documents. LOA: How would you describe their style as writers? Are their styles a key to their characters? In the end, I learned more about both men by pitting them against each other. Wood: I initially intended to focus only on Adams, in part because I had immersed myself in his writings while preparing the Library of America edition, but my editor at Penguin suggested comparing him with Jefferson and the notion fascinated me. LOA: What drew you to focus on the relationship between Adams and Jefferson? He took time out of his schedule this week to answer a few questions for us: For Library of America he has edited a three-volume edition of John Adams’s writings and the two-volume collection The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate 1764–1776. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and the author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution and Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789‒1815. Biographer Ron Chernow calls Wood’s new book, which goes on sale this week, “nothing less than a vivid composite portrait of the American mind.” Friends Divided shows how the two men nonetheless partnered in the movement for independence and in the nation’s earliest diplomatic efforts, how they eventually became bitter rivals in the presidential politics of the new republic, and finally how they reconciled in retirement, an object lesson in the elasticity of the American political system. ![]()
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