About the Author

John Adams (1735-1826), educated as a lawyer at Harvard, was the Massachusetts delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses. During the Revolutionary War, he served abroad in diplomatic roles and helped negotiate the peace treaty. After serving as Vice President for two terms under George Washington, he was subsequently elected President.

Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Radicalism of the American Revolution. He has also edited the two-volume Library of America edition The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate 1764–1776.