A Pulitzer-winning study of the intertwined lives of the founders of America: Adams, Burr, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and Washington. It argues that the checks and balances permitting the infant republic to endure were primarily rooted in the interaction of leaders with diverse values.
An enduring mythology has grown up around the Declaration of Independence. Generations of Americans believe that Jefferson wrote it in his Philadelphia study, influenced only by the stirring of great events around him. Five historians investigate the Declaration's history.