Joseph J. Ellis is the author, most recently, of “The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents.” ...

Driggs Memorial Lecture at Southern Utah University, telling students about his own personal Mount Rushmore, which would feature presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Harry S. Truman and George W.

As Chervinsky puts it, “George Washington created the presidency, but John Adams defined it.” He barely got the job. Alexander Hamilton, the Federalist Party’s de facto chief, disliked Adams ...

This journey was, in part, guided by one of America’s earliest champions of liberty – John Adams, a man who shaped not only his own time but laid the foundations for justice that resonate today.