Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

Rasenberger, Jim

Hardcover

Presidents & Heads of State19th Century United States History

Publisher Price: $31.00

ISBN10: 1668003422
ISBN13: 9781668003428
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: May 12 2026
Pages: 496
Weight: 1.45
Height: 1.50 Width: 6.20 Depth: 8.80
Language: English
A revelatory new look at the long and complex relationship between Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who died on the same historic day--July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

In creating the Declaration of Independence, approved by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, Jefferson and Adams collaborated in what Jefferson later called a perfect coincidence of thought and action. Exactly fifty years later, in the most perfect coincidence in American history, they died within hours of each other--both former US presidents, both essential architects of the nation.

This book explores those two remarkable coincidences and the fifty-year relationship in between. Thomas Jefferson, a charismatic Southern aristocrat, and John Adams, a cantankerous Yankee, were once close friends, then bitter political enemies. In the last years of their lives, they reconciled and resumed an extraordinary correspondence, totaling some 380 letters that continued until their final months.

Other than the Declaration of Independence, the greatest symbolic gift either man gave his country may have been dying together on that fateful Independence Day in 1826. For many Americans, this moment was viewed as a visible and palpable manifestation of Divine favor--as one contemporary put it--and fueled the conviction that America was a land of miracles.

Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States--and the 200th anniversary of the men's deaths--this book is essential reading for anyone interested in presidential biographies, the Revolutionary War era, and the enduring power--yet terrible fragility--of American democracy.

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