Rating:  Summary: Some Flaws, But a Very Good Book Review: In reading "John Adams" I get the impression that some significant stuff has been left on the cutting room floor. As an historian by training, I know that some relevant incidents (particularly relating to the discussion of the United States Navy)are not included, and should have been. However, this is "dry history", and I suspect that the editors cut it to make the chapters more readable.Despite the readability, I feel as if some vital information is missing. We get great explanation about why some things are about to happen, and none whatsoever about them after they have happened. Perhaps it's an attempt to squeeze our 2nd President's life into only 650 or so pages, but I would have been much happier if the text were stretched out to 700 or so! The only other problem that I encountered was the rather chaotic organization of the first chapter. Through a series of flashbacks and fast-forwards, the reader quickly loses the sense of where exactly, the main narrative is supposed to be. However, in succeeding chapters, this problem vanishes, and as with any great book, the more you read, the more you want to read. It amazed me that by the chapter dealing with the death and funeral of Adams, who from past knowledge I knew to be a rather irascible, explosive individual, I had a feeling of true regret at his passing. McCullough has succeeded in getting the reader past the bluff exterior of the man and hooking in to his very soul, to appreciate the incredible drive and sense of duty, and to understand Adams' reluctant rise to power and delicate handling of two extremely contentious political factions. I was also happy to see McCullough's handling of Thomas Jefferson. He doesn't resort to the hero worship that has contaminated the historical perspective through the ages. Jefferson, brilliant as he was, was a mediocre leader and a nasty political meddler. His genius was in committees, as in his work on the Declaration of Independence. All in all, I find McCullough's treatment of John Adams and his contemporaries accurate, though Adams himself is portrayed a bit softer than he likely was in real life. The book gives the reader a fine understanding of why the monumental events of the American Revolution came to be, and how a group of brilliant founding fathers could create a political system without attempting to turn it into a dictatorship for themselves. "John Adams" is understandable history at its entertaining best. I strongly recommend it.
Rating:  Summary: A classic! Review: There are so many great things about Mr. McCullough's latest work that it would be hard to list them all. The very best thing about this book is Mr. McCullough's writing style. He has, I understand, received some bad reviews from some so called "professional" historians. I have an advanced degree in history and have read some of these "professional" works. Even I find these books and articles are often dry and hard to read. Most readers simply don't even try to read these works. What good does a well researched work do if it lays on the shelf and gathers dust? Mr. McCullough does the research and then writes in a way that often makes it very hard to put the book down. Another fine point about this book is that one almost gets four stories for the price of one. Not only does one get the story of John Adams but also his wonderful wife. A remarkable person in her own right. The reader also gets a great deal of information about Thomas Jefferson and the early life of John Q. Adams. In my opinion there are two real tests of a biography beyond the obvious need for facts. First; does the book shed new light on its subject? This book rises to that test with flying colors. When I read Mr. McCullough's "Truman" I started out with a very positive impression of its subject. I had rather negative feelings for Adams before reading this book. I now find that John Adams has often been faulted for many things beyond his control. I also find that my feelings about Adams have changed a great deal. The second test is a more personal one. If the book has made me feel like I really know someone, like a close neighbor or friend I will feel a sense of loss when I read of the subject's death. At the end of this book I felt the loss deeply. It was as if I had known John Adams for years. Thank you David McCullough. You have given me a new friend.
Rating:  Summary: A book to be enthusiastic about! Review: I usually don't write a review of a book which already has 255 reviews but I will in this case. I had read in October of 2000 Page Smith's excellent two-volume biography of John Adams (1155 pages) and figured that I had read enuf about John Adams. But since all five books by McCullough that I read before this one were such great reading (The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, and Truman)I decided I would have to read this one too. Am I glad I did! It is better than Page Smith's because it takes less time to read, and yet covers the amazing life that Adams had fully and with great verve. One small question: the book says Adams was buried across the street from the church, but that great book, Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb, by Brian Lamb, says that he is buried in the church crypt, and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress says he is buried "under" the church. Did they first bury him in the graveyard and then move him to the crypt? That seems unlikely...
Rating:  Summary: A book for everyone Review: Buy it, read it and smile.
Rating:  Summary: A book that makes history fun to read Review: I have read a lot of history books- and have learned a tremendous amount from the hard work and research that many scholars have compiled. Many of those books, however, are like going to the dentist to get a tooth pulled- you have to fight your way through it to the bitter end. This book is a gem! Fast paced and wonderfully descriptive- one of the easiest historical reads I have had the pleasure of perusing. I hope the author keeps up his tremendous work, as it brings history alive for everyone- especially those who are hesitant to read 'history books'. Highly recommended!
Rating:  Summary: Highlights The Sacrifices Necessary to Create the U.S. Review: I love history. This is one of the best "history" books I've read. It clearly portrayed the personal sacrifices the John Adams, his family and other patriots (traitors if you're English) had to endure to create the greatest nation. It took six weeks to sail to Europe on dangerous wooden ships with no amentities. It made me wonder what John Adams and others would think about what's involved today for Presidential travel. This book has inspired me to read a book about each President in chronological order (first I'll have to backtrack to Washington).
Rating:  Summary: A Joy To Read Review: What more can I say about David McCullough's fine little tome? If you like history that is interesting and does a good job at giving you a historical context, this is your book. If you want to know more about a lesser-known founding father and don't want to get bogged down in larger volumes of stultified, ponderous prose, then this is your book. Only two caveats that you need to consider, however: 1. If you like Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin, be warned that the author doesn't paint them in a very good light. He pulls no punches in pointing out their faults (like Franklin's inability of understanding French or Jefferson's ostentatious lifestyle and contradictory living - comparing his high prose about the evils of slavery while eeking out a living via this evil institution). 2. He is very, very, postive about Adams. You won't find much criticism here. For instance, he mentions several times that Adams' contemporaries find him a bit "vain", but you will look long and hard to find him giving any specific examples of Adams behaving this way. These minor (VERY minor) caveats aside, you can sit back and rest assured that you will almost jump inside Adams' mind and be transported back to a precarious time in our Nation's history.
Rating:  Summary: Bringing History to Life Review: The greatest achievement of this book is that it brings to life a man and a time that are very remote from our own. I have read many books on the Revolutionary Era that are the products of excellent research and present important facts to the reader. Most of them, however, are painfully difficult to plow through. This book is a delight to read from the very first page. It sweeps you immediately into an 18th century New England winter and makes you feel as though you were there. McCullough could have written a shorter book, but doing so would have left out many of the little details that bring history to life. This book is intended for the general public, not the halls of academe. That is another sure sign that "John Adams" is a good read and is good history.
Rating:  Summary: Is one form of hero-worship better than another? Review: As a non-historian, I feel ill at ease judging history books. (The same goes for books on mathematics and probably would go for zoology books, but we stick to the trouble with history books here.) On the one hand, they're very much like novels, telling a story that will hopefully keep the reader intrigued for a few hundred pages. As a novel, _John Adams_ is very, very good. But in the case of a book like _John Adams_, history books are also telling what was, in all likelihood, a very boring story most of the time. It seems that the historian's challenge is to distill 80 or 90 years of typically boring life into 600 pages of riveting prose. It's a fine line to walk. Throughout _John Adams_, I feared that I wasn't reading the life of a person, but rather that of an icon; this was a man whose every breath, in McCullough's eyes, was principled, honest, and lacking most of the deficits that we humans experience. Or so it seemed to me. Despite the jacket's claim that it's trying to overcome the view of the Founding Fathers as ``figures in a costume pageant", I couldn't help feeling that McCullough had just entered them in a new pageant. Instead of the pageant in which our forefathers were dolled up in powdered wigs and stuck inside of a glass case to ogle, McCullough cast them as actors in a remake of _Braveheart_. They seem more real under McCullough's eyes, and I have a better sense of why to admire them, but I'm still not sure if I'll ever meet the real John Adams. I'm not sure I ever could meet the real man, certainly not from a book that would hold my interest. I may have been hoping for a book in which McCullough refused to make any assertions beyond the bare facts revealed in primary source materials from throughout Adams's life. But such a book would be hardly readable, and would be bear little trace of McCullough: it would be hardly more than collated diary entries and letters. Given that McCullough was writing much more than just a collection of primary sources, I have to say that he succeeded. He seems to have a secondary motive, which is to take Thomas Jefferson off the pedestal on which he has been placed for so many years (e.g., John F. Kennedy's famous quote when speaking to a roomful of Nobel laureates that ``"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone"). I'm not sure if Jefferson deserves to be removed, or if - as McCullough seems to wish - Adams should be elevated to the same plateau. In any case, I'm not sure whether I want to see one form of hero worship replaced with another. I guess that's my biggest concern: John Adams was a human, not a hero. I don't believe that heroes exist. People do certain things, and those things may be praiseworthy, but it is the adulation of others that makes those people into heroes; the people themselves are ordinary humans. But a biography of an ordinary human wouldn't sell books, so perhaps it's unavoidable that McCullough would engage in hero-worship. In the end, I don't know what to conclude about _John Adams_. It's a very well-written book, bringing historical sources together into a coherent narrative. It is enjoyable to read and puts the cast of characters from the Revolution in greater perspective than I learned in high school. Yet I worry that it is just another variant of the same unreality in which much of American history is masked.
Rating:  Summary: Finally, the respect Adams deserves Review: I will not even try to compete with the brilliant reviews written here already by others, but for those who need a short review from an average person, I am happy to recommend this book with all my heart. This is not a dry, boring recitation of dull facts about Adams. I learned not only about this fantastic man of whom before, I knew little, but the friendship between him and Jefferson was inspiring, especially the way Adams was able to forgive Jefferson for betraying him in more than one way and becoming each other's comfort in old age. (love Jefferson too, but that's what he did to Adams) If I had another son, I would be tempted to name him John Adams, that is how much respect I now have for Adams because I read this book. Couldn't put it down. The extreme sacrifices of Mrs. Adams and the other wives of the Revolution are also made real for readers. We really should call them "The Founding Mothers." What these men and women of the Revolution did for their country and posterity! I am grateful to the author for writing this book about such a fantastic man and honoring his contrubutions to our nation.
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