Winston Groom’s ‘The Patriots’ Reveals the Figures Behind America’s Origin Story [REVIEW]

Three powerful men. Three different backgrounds. Vastly disparate beliefs. Only one thing will be able to unite them: a nation born in fire. In The Patriots, bestselling author Winston Groom weaves the threads of their personal histories together and reveals how Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams dared to design the fabric of America.

When the Colonies emancipated themselves from Britain by means of the Revolutionary War, the seed of an idea had already been born. People no longer wanted to answer to a king, but to have the freedom to rule themselves. What would that really look like? Who could possibly tackle building that original model of government? And could such a new ideology ever survive?

Enter Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. Each brilliant in their own right, any one of them could dream up an idealist vision for the future. But would they be able to overcome their own histories, personal biases, and egos to lay the groundwork for the government that would ultimately rule what was to become the United States of America?

Adams had Puritanical roots. Hamilton, born a bastard, immigrated to America from the Caribbean. And Jefferson was a wealthy Southerner who saw himself as a man of the people, despite the fact that he (like Hamilton) owned slaves. The only thing the three of them truly seemed to have in common was that they all served in George Washington’s cabinet. That, and despite their own beliefs, they really wanted this new nation to stand on its own two feet.

With these backgrounds clearly drawn, Groom paints a vivid portrait of three men who would ultimately learn to compromise if they were ever to fully accomplish their goal. He does so by once again flexing his iconic writing chops—the same ones that firmly propelled his fictitious character Forrest Gump to literary legend—to breathe new life into these historical figures. The result is a book that is as engrossing as any novel, and dares the reader to try and put it down.

Whether you’ve walked the Freedom Trail, taken tours and watched reenactments of America’s early history, or simply seen the musical Hamilton, you already know much of the story that is told here. But it is Groom’s enthusiasm for the subject and his knack for luring characters off a page and into our living room for a chat that makes this book much more than just another dry political biography. This is a tale that rivals John Jakes’ beloved Kent Family Chronicles to tell the one story that touches all of us, the saga of people who built their dreams and forged their legacies on the hope for something better.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Winston Groom served as an Army officer in Vietnam before joining the Washington Star as a reporter.

In 1977 he published his first novel and moved to New York City and the Hamptons, where for a decade he enjoyed the friendship of many literary legends.

He is the author of 20 previous books, including the legendary novel Forrest Gump and The Aviators.

Returning to his roots in Alabama, he lived with his wife, Susan, on Mobile Bay until his death on September 17, 2020.

THE PATRIOTS
By Winston Groom
464 pp. National Geographic. $30.

Purchase The Patriots direct from Jathan & Heather Books or from one of these other fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Half Price Books, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, or Walmart.

The Patriots is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.