Kirkus Reviews QR Code   Washington, Adams, and Jefferson and
the American Revolution  By John E. Ferling  Pub Date: July 1st,
2000 ISBN: 0-19-513409-5 Publisher: Oxford Univ.  A thorough
exploration of the lives of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson,
and a consideration of their personal motives for participating
in the American Revolution.  Revolutionary War historian Ferling
(The First of Men, 1998) assesses the impact of our three great
Founding Fathers by reconstructing their lives from the
documents they left behind. This approach produces intriguing
portraits of men with monumental ambitions who were frustrated
by their status as colonial subjects. (Despite Washington’s
command of the Virginia militia, for example, he was subordinate
to even the greenest captain in the British army, while the most
Jefferson or Adams could hope for was a royal appointment as a
colonial magistrate.) As the British government adopted
increasingly oppressive and hostile measures to subvert the
American colonies’ discontented