Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating and Accessible - a MUST read!
Review: McCullough's treatment of Adams is sweeping yet cogent, contextual yet intimate. If it is not possible truly to "know" an historical figure of Adams's import, this book is as close as one is likely to come. Mining thousands of Adams's letters to his wife, children and colleagues (including, of course, Jefferson and Washington), as well as newspaper accounts, books and historical records, we are given entree into one of the most important political careers in American history. However, what gives the book its luster is the intimate way we come to know Adams. He was a fascinating person, and McCullough, while obviously in awe of Adams and reluctant to criticize him, gives us an honest account. If time travel is not possible, this book is the next best thing. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The Colossus of Independence
Review: David McCullough has single-handedly restored John Adams to his rightful place among the founders. We read, we learn, and we not only like Adams, we love him. And we love his wonderful wife, Abigail, too. Through McCullough, we learn to appreciate why Adams was regarded as the Colossus of Independence by his contemporaries. This book came along at just the right moment: we needed to be reassured that character still mattered. There is one serious flaw, however. To put John and Abigail on their deserved pedestals, it was not necessary to knock Jefferson off his. Jefferson remained true to his revolutionary idealism. He did not "betray" Adams, as McCullough writes. They had an honest parting of the ways. Adams comes through best in his letters. He is sharp, funny, honest, critical, yes, but self-critical, too.
Bald, round, decidedly uncool, but brave and good, what a founder! McCullough does much to rehabilitate the image of the sore loser who stalks away in the night, refusing even to attend his successor's inauguration. I finished this book in a thunderstorm on July 4th--just as Adams finished his life. We can all celebrate with his "bonfires and illuminations" and be proud of him.
Rating:
Summary: Not a Hagiography
Review: David McCullough's biography of Founding Father John Adams does justice to the life of a man vitally important to the lasting success of the United States. Adams was one of the few men to be involved in both the founding of the republic and in giving the new nation its early direction.Adams has been sadly overlooked for the important part he played in advocating independence from Britain, in securing America's viability as an independent nation, and in establishing the traditions of the American republic. Most of the laurels of the independence age go to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. While those men deserve their plaudits, Adams is as deserving of them too for the role he played. A life as long and filled with importance as Adams's is difficult to relate accurately. Even at around 650 pages, McCullough's biography seems thin in certain parts. Perhaps this is because Adams was not an overly complex man. His beginnings were as the son of a hard-working New England family who grew up with a father he respected and a mother he loved. Adams was straightforward with both his friends and enemies and remained so til the day he died. McCullough relates the events of Adams's life almost like it were a novel. He makes ordinarily dry history readable for a wider audience. Do not mistake readability for sloppiness or inaccuracy as McCullough captures a good picture of the aspects of Adams's life that everyone should be familiar with. We catch a glimpse of Adams as the "colossus of independence", as one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Paris, as the first American ambassador to Britain, as the first vice-president, and as the second president. Adams seemed most proud of his role in the independence movement but also feared that he would be overshadowed by Washington and Franklin. His fear of being forgotten is one of the weaknesses that McCullough points out about Adams. As with any great personage, Adams had his faults. Most of these Adams himself recognized. He knew he was given to vanity, episodes of depression, and outbursts of temper that often gave his opponents fodder to say he was insane. McCullough draws on the extensive correspondence that Adams maintained throughout his life with people like Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and Elbridge Gerry. Perhaps the most important correspondence he maintained though was with his wife Abigail. Abigail Adams was truly a unique woman for her times and often the equal of her husband in mind and in temper. Theirs was a relationship of equals to which Adams often turned for solace from the relentless press of public duty. I feel compelled to end by saying that this is not a hagiography as some would have you believe. McCullough does not brush aside some of the unpleasant aspects of Adams's character or mitigate his errors in judgment. McCullough rightly censures Adams for his unbecoming temper, his support for the Alien and Sedition Acts, and his absence at Jefferson's inauguration. However, these censurable defects are not enough to condemn the man. The good that Adams did in helping to secure American independence and to establish the United States as a viable nation where peaceful transitions of power could take place far outweigh those negatives.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but realistic?
Review: It's hard not to enjoy reading this book, it's very well written and deals with a vastly underappreciated yet remarkable man - John Adams. My chief complaint is that one gets the impression that the author considers Adams to have been a human being unburdened with any sort of weakness or flaw. This greatly diminished my enjoyment of the book as I couldn't help but feel that I was reading a biography with a decided spin to it, as opposed to a dispassionate analysis. It often reads like the sort of bio that might have been written by Adams' campaign manager if he were alive today. I also found the extreme negative treatment of Benjamin Franklin to be very odd. McCullough presents him as a rather useless, eccentric old fart who just sort of hung around, getting in the way of true heroes like John Adams. Since this is obviously a decidedly minority viewpoint it would have been interesting to have a bit more of a rationale for why the author found it necessary to go after Frankline the way he did. I found it odd, and it just added to my sense that McCullough was not able to rise above some evident preconceived notions about his subject matter. A more balanced treatment would have been better.
Rating:
Summary: A "personal" biography
Review: McCullough, as always, writes in a polished easy manner that makes his books popular and worth reading. At the same time, I found this book a disappointment and feel that both the book and the "rave" reviews here represent a fairly shallow analysis. This is Adams as seen by the personal viewpoint of the Adamses, both John and Abigail. There is little from any other perspective. This view may be valid and Adams' critics may be in error but in this book there is no way to even see why Adams was criticized in the first place. Rather, Jefferson, Franklin, et al, look inane when they are not supportive of Adams. Another reviewer has called the book a "hagiography" rather than a "biography" and the criticism is valid. Rarely does McCullough allow anything bad to be said of Adams and on those rare occasions when we become aware that not everyone loved the man, we are not allowed to see the why they are hostile. Nor is there any real analysis of the politics of the time. Adams is a patriot, believes in liberty, and really, really hates war. This is supposed to explain everything. Unfortunately it doesn't and anyone who wants to really understand John Adams and his times will need to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Never Disappointing
Review: John Adams was a patriot, a devoted husband, father, and friend. This is itself is not too extraordinary. What marks his life, however, is his devotion to the written word. Over the course of his long and fruitful life, Adams was an obsessive letter-writer. Lucky for us! McCullough weaves political and national history with Adams' amazing volume of personal letters, allowing us to view both the relevant history as well as the man behind the history. Indeed, the long dealings with the complex relationship between Adams and Jefferson is wonderful; however, it would be in poor form to single out any one part of the book as extraordinary. It is all extraordinary!
I'll admit that in some parts the book seemed a bit long, but it was never boring, never uninteresting, and never non-entertaining.
After having read McCullough's "Truman," I was very happy to see his latest work. I find his writing style to be lucid and captivating. Try it - you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best books of the last five years
Review: Truely surpasses Truman, as his greatest history covering leading American Figures. For those wishing to know more about other founding fathers I highly recommend Koch's Book on the American Enlightenment, in Addition to the Book titled Founding Brothers, all of which are excellant portrails of the founding fathers.
Rating: 
Summary: President and First Lady Adams.
Review: This is the first of David McCullogh's books that I found dry and difficult to finish. The love between Abigale and John is deep and lasting. It is because of her love that he was able to accomplish so much, even to seeing their son become president. The love letters are the basis for the story; the history is excellent, but the "sense" of the time is missing.
Rating:
Summary: Clear Focus
Review: When you have finished reading David McCullough's "John Adams" that brings John Adams into clear focus to you, I recommend that you go on to Norman Thomas Remick's easy read, "West Point: Character Leadership Education, A Book Developed From The Readings And Writings Of Thomas Jefferson" to give Thomas Jefferson a chance to be brought into clear focus to you.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Literature, but sometimes historically suspect
Review: I would have to echo many of the other reviewers that this book is high literature. David McCullough is one of the greatest writers of a good narrative history I've ever read. As a student of history though, I was a little disappointed with what amounted to hero worship in the omissions of McCullough's book. McCullough doesn't even mention the Thomas Nash/Jonathan Robbins affair. McCullough also leaves out Adams' frequent desire to lock up newspaper people who attacked him, instead implying that the Alien and Sedition Act was signed grudgingly because of Abigail, when there is little evidence that, at the time, Adams had any serious reservations about the act. Yet, having said that, I must add that this is the best way to get an enthralling outline of Adams life in a book with 600+ pages that leaves you wishing it were longer! If you want to be historically rounded in the accounts of Adams' presidency, your reading should be tempered by other books, such as James F. Simon's What Kind of Nation and Richard Brookhiser's America's First Dynasty.
|
