MAY 2026
The Extraordinary Friendship
and Astonishing Deaths
of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
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.
Wall Street Journal:
"This book is a delight, a sparkling work of narrative nonfiction that acquaints the general reader with the thoughts and doings of two giants of American democracy.... Mr. Rasenberger employs a framing device that exemplifies his humane, good-natured and judicious approach to the past. ……With narrative deftness, Mr. Rasenberger causes his speculative Eye to roam over a “prosperous and kinetic land,” in the process acquainting us with the contours of the U.S. half a century after it came to be….. Throughout the book, Mr. Rasenberger never loses sight of the tormented double nature of the early American experiment—bondage in the land of the free—nor does he seek to sink one with the other. Like the calm, godly Eye, he registers the good and bad of human nature with moral clarity but without castigation."
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal
BOOKLIST (*Starred*)
“In detail simultaneously microscopic, well-organized, and vivid, Rasenberger describes the months and minutes leading up to each man’s death. Readers know the outcome, yet this account is full of suspense, mysteries, and surprises.... Rasenberger’s quick, confident writing and dry wit bring to life America’s colonial and post-colonial landscapes, politics, religion, and the toll of injury and fatal illness. With a Sousa march’s energy and beauty, this exceptional book ends by showing how Adams’ and Jefferson’s ideas remain central to modern American government.”— John Rowen, BOOKLIST, *STARRED REVIEW
CSM:
"July 4, 2026, marks not only the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but the 200th anniversary of the deaths of two of America’s most significant founders: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Historian Jim Rasenberger’s absorbing account illuminates their complex relationship, which spanned friendship, rivalry, estrangement, and, finally, reconciliation."—Barbara Spindel, Christian Science Monitor
Shelf Awareness:
“[An] engaging work of popular history... In a well-paced narrative, Jim Rasenberger explores the many cooperative and contentious intersections in the lives of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”—Harvey Freedenberg, SHELF AWARENESS
"A Perfect Coincidence is a pitch-perfect telling of one of early America's greatest tales of the indispensable roles of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the nation's birth, of their descent into becoming political enemies, and then their famous correspondence of devotion and reconciliation, leading to their last great act, the remarkable concurrence of their passing [...] who remain central to our understanding of America at the nation's 250th anniversary."
—Michael Kranish, author of Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War
"When John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, awestruck Americans wondered what to make of the remarkable timing. Two hundred years later, Jim Rasenberger gives us the answer in this spellbinding and sweeping history.
—Jonathan Horn, author of The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines
"In this fresh interpretation of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams's remarkable half-century relationship, Jim Rasenberger offers a fascinating, nuanced, and gracefully written portrait of the birth of American politics. A beautifully crafted dual biography sensitive to the private as well as public lives of its striking subjects, A Perfect Coincidence raises vital questions about democracy and aristocracy, liberty and power that continue to confront us in the nation's Semiquincentennial year."
—David S. Brown, author of The Last American Aristocrat and In the Arena
