The Cost of Liberty

A Great—and Greatly Misunderstood—Founder

The first biography of John Dickinson published in fifty years, The Cost of Liberty offers a sorely needed reassessment of a great patriot and misunderstood Founding Father.

Countering the caricature of Dickinson that has emerged from such popular treatments as HBO’s John Adams miniseries, author William Murchison brings to life an astonishingly principled man whose gifts as philosopher, writer, and speaker only Jefferson came near matching. Today Dickinson is remembered mostly for his reluctance to sign the Declaration of Independence. But that reluctance was in fact principled, Murchison shows, not the result of a lack for patriotism. Indeed, Dickinson immediately took up arms to serve the colonial cause—something only one signer of the Declaration did.

The Cost of Liberty gives a great Founder his long-overdue measure of honor.