This week we have previewed three stellar review/essays from the new (Winter) issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here). It is an invaluable magazine for those of us who love penetrating essays on, and reviews of books about, politics, history, literature and culture.
We conclude our preview with Richard Samuelson’s review of Friends Divided, Gordon Wood’s book-length study of Adams and Jefferson. Our friend Richard judges: “Wood’s inner humanist shines through in [Wood’s] meticulous, inspired interpretations of people, events, and writings, interpretive passages that are unsurpassed in his formidable body of work. Yet Wood’s bias as a historian is cultural or ideological. Hence his focus is not on the Adams-Jefferson friendship or even on their famous correspondence, but, rather, on what they represent for America.”
Richard has much more to say in this illuminating and thoughtful review. I selected this review to preview here because Richard is a most knowledgeable and trustworthy guide to founders with whom we continue to struggle. Nobody I have met knows more about Adams.
UPDATE: The missing link: “Best of enemies.”
