John Ferling has nearly forty years of experience as a historian of early America. The author of acclaimed histories such as A Leap into the Dark and Almost a Miracle, he has appeared on many TV and film documentaries on this pivotal period of our history. In John Adams: A Life, Ferling offers a compelling portrait of one of the giants of the Revolutionary era.
Drawing on extensive research, Ferling depicts a reluctant revolutionary, a leader who was deeply troubled by the warfare that he helped to make, and a fiercely independent statesman. The book brings to life an exciting time, an age in which Adams played an important political and intellectual role. Indeed, few were more instrumental in making American independence a reality. He performed yeoman's service in the Continental Congress during the revolution and was a key figure in negotiating the treaty that brought peace following the long War of Independence. He held the highest office in the land and as president he courageously chose to pursue a course that he thought best for the nation, though it was fraught with personal political dangers. Adams emerges here a man full of contradictions. He could be petty and jealous, but also meditative, insightful, and provocative. In private and with friends he could be engagingly witty. He was terribly self-centered, but in his relationship with his wife and children his shortcomings were tempered by a deep, abiding love.
John Ferling's masterful John Adams: A Life is a singular biography of the man who succeeded George Washington in the presidency and shepherded the fragile new nation through the most dangerous of times.

John Ferling is the author of nine books and numerous articles on the American Revolution and early American wars, and has appeared in four television documentaries devoted to the Revolution and the War of Independence. His book A Leap in the Dark won the Fraunces Tavern Book Award as the year's best book on the American Revolution and Almost a Miracle was named the New York American Revolution Round Table Best Book of 2007. He lives in metropolitan Atlanta.

Preface
Introduction
Part One: Love of Fame
1. Vanity Is My Cardinal Vice
2. Shall I Creep or Fly?
3. To Thine Own Self Be True
4. The Scene of Action
Part Two: An Epocha in History
5. Tea that Bainful Weed
6. Until Our Rights Are Fully Restored
7. We Shall Do Something in Time
8. Oh That I Was a Soldier!
9. A Total Absolute Independence
10. To Leave This Station with Honour
Part Three: Safe and Glorious in the Harbour of Peace
11. A Man of No Consequence
12. My Business Is Peace
13. Thus Drops the Curtain
14. High against America
Part Four: One Man of Inflexible Integrity
15. Much to Be Grateful For
16. An Office of Hard Labor and Severe Duty
17. War Is Inexpedient
18. Thunderstruck
19. The Seeds of Discontent and Division
Part Five: I Still Live and Enjoy Life
20. A Retired Hermetical Life
21. A Heavy Burden to Carry
Afterword
Abbreviations
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index