Joseph Ellis has done it again. This combined biography of the most important husband/wife team of the era is a wonderful extension of his writing on early US history. I enjoyed 2 of his previous books on the American Revolutionary era. In my previous review of Founding Brothers and American Creation I thought that he covered that era well and in a totally enjoyable way.

His new book First Family: Abigail and John Adams covers the same time period but from a different perspective (and of course with much more detail on the Adams family). The book is based on the letters between Abigail and John which spanned the years leading up to the Revolution and the early republic. The gaps are filled in with Ellis’ knowledge of the era and some informed speculation to fill in missing details.

I read this on my Kindle and that has both advantages and disadvantages over reading a physical book. I’ll write a more detailed post on that later.

If you think you might be interested in this book, I would encourage you to visit the Amazon site (link below). You can read more reviews on Amazon or read samples of the book (see link below).