The July Fourth weekend is a time to relax and barbeque. For a few days at least, we forget about bills and budgets, and we put aside worries over accounting scandals and the stock market. It’s a time to savor the summer.

The Fourth of July, of course, marks the beginning of the American Revolution. And it was a revolution. The historian Gordon Wood notes that, within a mere 50 years, the revolution transformed a small number of economically underdeveloped colonies into "the most liberal, the most democratic, the most commercially minded, and the most modern people in the world." The celebration of America’s declaration of independence is especially meaningful following the tragedy of September 11.

John Adams ranks high among the architects of the revolution. And I highly recommend the recent biography of Adams by historian David McCullough. Yes, it’s 651 pages long, not counting the index. But McCullough narrates a gripping tale about the brilliant, cantankerous, and exceptionally moral Adams. It’s also a moving love story between John and Abigail, his wife and best friend.

One piece of the biography has stuck with me long after I had put the book down. Like many of the other leading revolutionaries, Adams devoted much time and thought to the design of constitutional government, including such issues as the separation and balance of powers, a government of law not men, and equality and merit over aristocracy and inheritance. In the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, authored by Adams, he wrote a remarkable section titled, "The Encouragement of Literature, Etc." Adams believed a democratic government had a duty not only to educate its citizens, but also to nourish the interests of literature and science, of natural history, and good humor. A liberal education in the broadest sense of that phrase was the foundation of a good society.

Right now, kids are free from school and homework, running with friends and staying up late. But as a society, from New York City, where judges have ruled that an eighth-grade education is sufficient for high school graduates, to San Francisco, where inner city students are systematically shortchanged in the epicenter of the new economy, the great economic challenge of our era is to live up to Adams' dream of a literate, educated nation.