George, John, and Thomas
John Ferling’s Setting the World Ablaze was very good. It’s a comparative biography of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. The first three presidents are great subjects for comparative biography because they come from different backgrounds. Jefferson and Washington were both rich Virginians, but they got there in different ways.
Washington was the first to really understand what Britain was doing in the post-French and Indian War period. He saw that the King and Parliament were trying to reign the colonies in by reducing the freedom to which they had grown accustomed. Adams and Jefferson figured it out years later.
Adams worked tirelessly in different posts here and in France during the war. In Congress he was the workhorse of the independence movement. In France, he managed concessions in peace negotitaions where others had failed. His work during the war doesn’t get much attention because he did a lot of the boring work.
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Others could have written it, but Jefferson’s writing made it powerful document it is. Jefferson’s work during the war doesn’t get much attention because he didn’t do much after 1776. He went at least a year without mentioning it once in correspondence.
I recommend the book as it is an enjoyable read, and makes these three men and the times they lived in more accessible than some other books. At a little over 300 pages, it’s not too cumbersome, either.