How John Adams Defined the Presidency w/ Lindsay Chervinsky

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John Adams' single term as President has long been cast as a low point in his political career, but Lindsay Chervinsky sees it differently. "George Washington created the Presidency," she writes in her new book Making the Presidency, "but John Adams defined it."

In this episode, Lindsay joins us to share why she sees Adams as a crucial figure in transforming an office that had been established for, and created by, George Washington, into a position with the customs and practices that could be passed down through generations. Along the way, Lindsay explains why she thinks we've gotten Adams so wrong (hint: both Jefferson and Hamilton disliked his politics), the crucial role he played in establishing a peaceful transition of power, and how the January 6^th insurrection might help us all have a greater appreciation for President John Adams.

Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and author of the new book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, which is out September 5^th, 2024 from Oxford University Press. You can find out more about her work at her website: lindsaychervinsky.com

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out Lindsay Chervinsky's previous RTN appearances on The Road to Now:

· #184: The President's Cabinet

· #263: Mourning the Presidents

· #296: The Election of 1824 (Part 1 in our Third Party Elections Series)

This episode originally aired as RTN #313 on Sept. 2, 2024. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ben Sawyer and this is The Road to Now.
0:08.3	Today on the show, we revisit our conversation with Lindsay Trevinsky on her book
0:12.1	Making the Presidency, John Adams and the precedents that forged the republic.
0:16.7	This book did so much to change the way I thought about Adams' presidency,
0:24.7	probably more than any book since Chernow's grant biography.
0:28.3	It's brilliant and well worth re-air on the show.
0:33.0	It's Thanksgiving, and Bob and I hope that you guys are going to have a good one with your families.
1:11.2	We've taken a little time off, but we're recording new episodes after this week, And I look forward to sharing those with you in the future. Happy Thanksgiving. Take care. I'm Ben Sawyer. I'm Bob Crawford. And this is the road to now. It is. And we haven't been together for a while, Bob, so we both want to say it. We can say it together. It's awesome that we're back together. We've had a wild summer both going in different directions. And she's just seeing Bob's face, you know, wild son. I'm just, I am ready for, for not summer. And well, yeah. Well, Bob maintains a podcast and released an album with the Avid brothers and has been on tour. It's been a busy summer for him.
1:12.3	I've been all over the place.
1:17.8	And so now we come back together and it feels like family because returning to the podcast,
1:21.2	our guest today is presidential historian, extraordinary.
1:24.0	Lindsay Trevinsky, welcome back to the show.
1:25.2	Thanks, guys.
1:26.8	It's great to see you.
1:29.7	And I'm honored to be your first one back together after a while.
1:33.1	Yeah, and Lindsay, you know, you have a new gig.
1:35.6	It has been a busy summer for me, too.
1:40.7	Tell us about, tell our listeners about your, they will love to hear about your new job.
1:41.7	Yes.
1:47.0	So starting in late July, I became the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, which is at Mount Vernon. And it is a really crazy full circle moment
1:54.4	because I was a fellow there working on my dissertation and have gone back to do a bunch of
1:59.5	events and things with them, but to now actually be able to run the library is really fun. And it's a really important moment, both for the library, because it's moving into its second decade. It's only 10 years old. And so thinking about, you know, expansion and what it will be, but also for the nation. We have huge anniversaries coming up. and they're important. And I think history and civics are
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