The acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan returns with a controversial exploration of how Abraham Lincoln’s and John Quincy Adams’ experiences with slavery and race shaped their differing viewpoints, providing perceptive insights into these two great presidents and a revealing perspective on race relations in modern America “A fresh look at John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, abolitionism, and other related American history…. In this insightful, often disturbing dual biography, he makes a convincing case that Adams, working decades before Lincoln, was the real hero…. eye-opening.”—Kirkus (starred review)