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Summary: David Mccullough - our best biographer
Review: David Mccullough does it again! I've read 'Truman' and 'The Johnstown Flood', and both captured the excitement of the topic rather than overwhelming the reader with irrelevant detail, as the great bulk of biographers do. 'John Adams' captures both the spirit of the man and the times. If you enjoy history, buy this book. If you enjoy a good story, buy this book. If you write biographies, emulate this author.
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Summary: I didn't want to put this book down!
Review: A great read! A smooth and easy to read book by the prize- winning author of "Truman".The book gives a quick glance at his early life and then McCullough sinks his teeth into Adams' adult life.
McCullough writes in great detail about Adams' years with the Continental Congress, his time in Paris,Holland and England.I was fascinated to read the abundance of excerpts McCullough pulled from the letters and diaries of John Adams, our second president and the man that Thomas Jefferson himself called "the collossus of independence".
However,the most important thing covered in this book is the deep love and respect between Abagail and John Adams.The outpourings of emotion in their letters to each other can't help but effect the reader in some way.
David McCullough has done it again. He has written another book that deserves a Pulitzer Prize.I thought that with the old style of talking and writing that the book would be a hard read but it was not.At 700+ pages it will take some time but it will be worth every minute of it!! A beautiful book, beautifully done!!
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Summary: Learned a lot but a tough read
Review: I bought this book largely because I had previously read McCullough's book on Harry Truman and enjoyed it. I learned a tremendous amount about John Adams from the book. I had not known much about the man, much less that he had defended the English soldiers in the Boston Massacre, that he had pushed Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, that our country's Birthday is really July 2nd and the July 4th date is based on both Adams' and Jefferson's faulty memories, that Adams was in charge of the War Department supporting Washington's army in the Revolutionary War, or Adams pivotal role in just about every aspect of America's independence effort. It is sort of startling to me that, up until this work apparently, Adams got virtually ignored compared to Washington and Jefferson. For that, I am grateful that I read this book.
That being said, I must say that, even though I read a lot, I found this book to be extremely hard to read. It is quite slow going. Much of the information and details is based upon correspondence between John Adams and his wife (Abigail). Also, McCullough has a habit of skipping around a bit chronologically, which I found confusing. Finally, McCullough is so enamored with his subject and the book is so largely founded on correspondence between husband and wife that it lacks any real criticism of the man.
Still, I am glad that I read the book and recommend it. I deducted one star because I found it difficult to read.
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Summary: Story of a Yankee Patriot
Review: Of all the men who were key to the founding of the American Republic, John Adams is probably the most neglected today in the popular imagination. Even in his own time he could see himself becoming overshadowed by his more glamorous peers - Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, even others - who flirted with their own legends and burnished the images that were to enter posterity. So one can easily imagine John Adams now two centuries later smiling down in satisfaction at finding his own dusty image at last redeemed by this superb biography. Biographers often fall in love with their subjects, and while Mr. McCullough doesn't aggrandize Adams, every chapter of this book glows with a fond admiration for him. The birth of American democracy succeeded against all odds in large part because the clear-sighted pragmatism of its leaders, and Adams stands out among them. His core talent was for getting to the nub of complex issues, then unleashing his obsessive determination to resolve them, regardless of the political cost to himself or of the sensibilities of others. He therefore always seemed to have more enemies than friends, and even his friends rarely stood by him as unconditional allies. Yet he had a way of getting the job done, and his most virulent detractors never questioned his integrity or his dedication to his country. Adams was the political tactician who, probably more than any other, pushed the bitter floor debate in Philadelphia towards issuance of the explosive Declaration of Independence. His greatest achievement was undoubtedly as president, in steering the young nation through the period of venomous partisanship between the Federalists and Republicans. Angering his allies still without winning over any of his enemies, he acted largely alone in initiating the diplomatic overtures that avoided the threatening war with France which, had it occurred, could very well have destroyed the young republic and brought America back under the domination of one or the other of the great European powers. Mr. McCullough's biography nicely portrays the balance Adams achieved between his political and private lives. Indeed, the most endearing theme of this whole story is the passionate, life-long love affair Adams had with is wife Abigail, whose unconditional loyalty and political acumen made her the only confidant in whom Adams ever placed his whole-hearted trust. In sharp contrast to many of his revolutionary colleagues - particularly and ironically Jefferson - he was a man of relatively modest means and he cared little for the trappings of wealth. He was a Yankee farmer at heart, and his letters during 25-year retirement at the end of his life sparkle with an kind of mystical love for his land. His home was a beehive of family warmth and happy social activity. Yet his late years were punctuated as well with continual tragedy, as old friends and family members died around him, including his daughter Nappy and, eventually, his beloved Abigail. He endured the sad and self-destructive failures of his two younger sons, and lived to see John Quincy, his oldest son and his pride and joy, elected as the sixth president of the United States. After his own presidency, he largely avoided politics except through correspondence. Along with Abigail, the other enduring thread in his life was to Thomas Jefferson, a friend whom he loved dearly yet became a bitterly divided from during the height of their careers. After both had retired, they buried the hatchet and corresponded regularly, renewing their friendship without ever again laying eyes on one another. In one of the most extraordinary serendipities in history, they died on the same day, the 4th of July, exactly half a century after issuance of the revolutionary document which the two of them had coaxed into being. Mr. McCullough's account of the waning years of Adam's life exudes a biblical intensity, describing the love and beauty the man experienced, intertwined with wrenching tragedy and the physical pain and deterioration of old age. With his bluntness, his curmudgeonly Yankee cleverness, his simplicity, his warmth, his integrity and his love for life, Adams was a quintessentially American character. David McCullough has performed a great service by bringing it back to life for us in this fine biography, which I highly recommend.
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Summary: Aesthetics are Ruining Print
Review: The Book is fabulous. I found it informative and interesting. I am an avid reader of biography and was fascinated by the sad state of Jefferson's personna.
I contacted Simon & Schuster about the presentation of their book. The print was uneven, some dark, some almost ubreadable because of the lack of ink and some in between. As I informed them, I will not ever buy another of their books. I will wait for the paperback, as one doesn't expect quality. I knew they would not answer my letter so I am letting you , and hopefully many others, know about the lack of quality control.. This is not a book I would lend to someone it is so shoddy.
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Summary: McCullough Becomes John Adams
Review: I got about 2/3 through the book before I put it down. I can understand why McCullough fills the book up with citations and references from the Adams' abundant correspondence; but when McCullough begins to use 18th century phraseology and terms in his own writing, then this is too much. This is a situation where David has "done too much research and let his subject's writing style, in the end, influence his own.
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Summary: Founding Fathers made human
Review: Living in New England, this book seemed like required reading. After reading it, I believe this book should be required reading. It is a history, a love story, an intrigue. It is great reading with something for everyone.Our founding fathers were not men living on a pedestal. They had strengths and weaknesses just like all of us; they were human. In one of my favorite passages, McCullough describes a night that Ben Franklin and John Adams had to share a hotel room because rooms were scarce. Ben wanted to sleep with the window and John wanted the window closed. How mundane! How human! Well done, Mr. McCullough!
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Summary: A history lesson your now old enough to enjoy...
Review: As a transplanted Canadian, I didn't learn much of U.S. history during school. The history I was taught never seemed very inspiring. Fowarding to 32 years of age, U.S. History couldn't be more fascinating. The JOHN ADAMS chronology of Adams life was informative, inspirational and will certainly spur me on to read more about the U.S. founding fathers. Through a combination of both great subject matter, and an entertaining writting style, JOHN ADAMS is a book I would recommend to anyone who would like to give their history lessons a second chance. This book should be required reading for all politicians today. It outlines some of the great concepts this country was built on - as reconstructed from the actual voluminous records of correspondance at the time and place of the U.S. birth. At the same time, this book also evidences the sadly all too human nature to bastardize great theoretical concepts through misguided self-interests. The political intrigue, even among some of these assumedly (and incorrectly) unreproachable "founding fathers" is fascinating. You couldn't ask for a more pure initial experiment then that of american independance as outlined in the pages of JOHN ADAMS. Go out and buy this book today and make your history teacher proud...!!!
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Summary: "Independence Forever"
Review: John Adams has been the most overlooked of the American Founders. David McCulough's large, epic-scaled biography seeks to correct this omission and to bring the character and achievement of Adams alive for today's reader. McCullough describes well the essential role Adams played in his long life in our Nation's founding. The stages of Adams career, each filled in their own way with accomplishment, can be divided as follows: 1. early years as a young attorney culminating in his courageous defense of the British militia responsible for the Boston Massacre; 2. ceaseless advocate for American Independence during the First Continental Congress; 3. Diplomat to France and Holland during the Revolutionary War and American negotiator of the peace treaty; 4. Diplomat to Britain to negotiate commercial treaties for the fledgling nation 5. first Vice-President of the United States; 6. second President of the United States who successfully kept the country out of war with France; 7. retirement in Quincy. Each of these periods of Adams's life is described in detail with good attention paid to giving the reader a feel for time and place. I thought the descriptions of early Philadelphia and of Paris both before and after the Revolution were well done. McCullough also concentrates on Adams's character. He emphasizes his honesty and integrity, admitted to even by his opponents, his love of learning, his relationship with his remarkable wife Abigail and his sometimes sad relationships with his children, and his relationship with other leading figures of the time including, of course, Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin and many others. Adams's vanity, his sharp temper, and his ambition also come through well in the book. For all of Adams's accomplishments, I was most impressed with the final stage of his life following his 1800 loss of the Presidency to Thomas Jefferson. Adams retired to his farm in Quincy, Massachusetts and devoted himself to reading and to extensive correspondence. In particular, Adams and Thomas Jefferson effected a reconciliation following the conclusions of their Presidencies and exchanged a remarkable series of letters on their thoughts on government, their political experiences, their reading, and simply on growing older and wiser. These letters are indeed treasures of American literature and thought. Both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as befitting the stature they have for our country. Virtually on his deathbed, Adams was asked for a toast for the celebration. He responded with the words that are the title of this review. This is a deservedly poplular book. May it awaken in the reader an appreciation of our country's revolutionary past and a devotion to its present.
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Summary: Excellent biography of our Second President
Review: David McCullough does an excellent job portraying our second president. Prior to reading this book, I had little insight as to the incredible role John Adams played in shaping this country. This is an excellent book on John Adams the man and the President. I would recommend this book to any student of history.
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