When the Revolutionary War ended in victory in 1783, there remained the stupendous problem of how to establish a workable democratic government in the vast, newly independent country. Three key founding fathers played significant roles: John Adams, the brilliant, dour, thin-skinned New Englander; Thomas Jefferson, the aristocratic Southern renaissance man; and Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the Caribbean island of Nevis. Their lives and policies could not have been more different; their relationships with each other were complex, and often rife with animosity. And yet these three men led the charge—two of them creating and signing the Declaration of Independence, and the third establishing a national treasury and the earliest delineation of a Republican party. The time in which they lived was fraught with danger and the smell of liberty in the air, excitement strained by vast antagonisms. But above it all, they fulfilled the heavy role of creating the United States of America. Drawing on extensive correspondence, epic tales of war, and rich histories of their day-to-day interactions, bestselling author Winston Groom shares the remarkable story of the beginnings of our great nation.