This is a book about two special men and their time. But it is also about friendship, books and libraries, reading, understanding the wisdom of the past, and acting on this knowledge. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were among the great library builders of their age. They used the information in their books to guide them and, in their retirement, they articulated the role of books and ideas in their lives. Their lives were intertwined; they documented in letters and other writings what they felt, thought, and did. Except for the few years when they were political enemies, they were friends who shared ideas and engaged in one of the most distinguished correspondences in American history or letters. Introspective, reflective, and remarkably informed, these men tested each other's understanding of the previous half century of the nation's political, economic, and social development at the same time that they shared credit as founding fathers for much of what America had become. The year 2009 marked the bicentennial of Thomas Jefferson leaving the presidency and returning to Monticello-and also the start of the rebuilding of the friendship between Adams and Jefferson. Jefferson wrote to Adams in 1815, "I cannot live without books." And Adams wrote, "We ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other." And so they did in their correspondence as they reviewed the Revolution, the Constitution, and ideas on democracy from the Greeks to the Enlightenment. In June 2009, a weeklong conference called "John Adams and Thomas Jefferson: Libraries, Leadership, and Legacy" was held initially in Boston and then in Charlottesville. Thirty-two scholars presented papers on these two great Americans and the ideas they shared. Speakers came from twenty institutions in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. The conference was sponsored by seven national organizations, including the Boston Public Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello. Book jacket.