John Adams is the least popular of the major American founders. He was prickly, blunt, frequently unpopular with colleagues, and willing to take positions that cost him politically. He also defended British soldiers accused of the Boston Massacre because he believed in due process regardless of political cost. He ended his presidency deeply unpopular and lost his reelection bid. Ricks traces Adams' character to his deep reading of Cicero, who modelled the lawyer-statesman willing to speak unwelcome truth to power. The lesson Adams embodies is not that you should be deliberately abrasive, but that a certain kind of intellectual honesty — the willingness to say what you actually believe rather than what is strategically useful or socially safe — is both rare and genuinely important. Most institutions are not short of people who are liked. They are usually short of people who are honest.