Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: A great deal has been written about the number two in this particular case. John Adams was not merely the second President of the United States, he was the father of yet another American president (John Quincy Adams) and a contemporary and colleague of such historical players as Thomas Jefferson (with whom Adams seemed to have an eerie and almost supernatural link), Benjamin Franklin and James Madison: all of whom take prominent roles in "John Adams," David McCullough's thorough and deservedly lengthy biography of the longest lived American president's life.While the rich ground of Adams' life has been probed many, many, many times since his death on July 4th, 1826, no one has blasted as much life into this story as McCullough. The author understands exactly what it takes to breathe life into material that, in other hands, has the potential to be deadly boring. Reading "John Adams," you get the feeling that McCullough could write a biography on your neighbor the plumber and make it at least passably interesting. Working with a historical character like Adams, whose long life was filled with fascinating people and deeds and who lived at a time of great change, the result is little short of mesmerizing.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, great man -- but maybe not such a great guy
Review: I thought the book was very well written, though I should disclose that I listened to the abridged audio version. In any case, I thought the book was great: informative, enjoyable, and with the right mix of macroscopic and microscopic detail. (I assume that the unabridged version goes into much greater detail, which I don't regret missing). In some reviews, McCullough is criticized for being too forgiving of Adams' personal and political faults. I disagree. In fact, my overriding impression of Adams after listening to this book was that I probably would not have liked him at all had I known him personally. For someone who esteemed humility in others, he was outwardly very arrogant. And despite his frequent claims to desire the simple life, he seemed continually determined to attain high office and personal glory, even at the expense of familial relationships. He often claimed to be unconcerned with how history would remember him, but I can't help but feel that many of his letters to Jefferson and even family members were tinted with attempts to reshape his reputation for posterity. One response from Jefferson in the book suggests that even T.J. suspected Adams' motives for wanting to rehash old battles in his letters. To be fair, I do believe that Adams sincerely changed for the better once he was out of office and out of the limelight, and that he was finally able to enjoy the company of friends and family above power and prestige. I also gained new respect for the key role that he played in building the new nation.
Rating:
Summary: Confronts prevailing liberal focus on Jefferson & Franklin
Review: For God-fearing, Bible-believing, hard-working, flag-loving Americans it must sometimes be a puzzlement (if you know the whole truth about our Founding Fathers) to understand how America became as great as she did, or spawned so many generations of people just like them, if Jefferson and Franklin were our nations most influential founders. Not to say that the latter two were not great men. But have you ever noticed the abundance of modern biographies available on Franklin and Jefferson in comparison to the relative paucity of modern material on Adams, or even Washington. The fog begins to lift when you discover, through this biography, less-than-savory facts about Franklin and Jefferson. Liberals don't want you to know those less-than-savory facts about the man who fell in love with France (Franklin) or the man who supplied us with the phrase (not found in the founding documents) "separation of church and state". And apparently they want you to know nothing at all about John Adams, because they don't write about him. Perhaps it's because he embodies all that God-fearing, hard-working, flag-loving Americans believe in. Jefferson (who was not on speaking terms with Adams for years) was more "liberal" than modern liberals. He at least was honest enough to describe Adams as the "colossus of the American revolution". Read this book if you want to know the whole truth about the whole mosiac of bedrock people this republic was founded on. And once you've read it, spread the word.
Rating:
Summary: Did not suffer fools gladly.....
Review: Having nothing beyond an elementary knowledge of our Founding Fathers, this book has caused me to load up my Wish-List with more biographies from the era. Biographies, particularly of past eras, seem to be divided into the mind-numbingly boring and those that flow so well that you are sorry for it to end. This is one of the latter. The more I read about our history, the more I see that it is very difficult to impossible to place current events in the proper perspective without a knowledge of what proceeded them. It seems to have opinions on political matters without having a grasp of this is, to a degree, to pull a random idea out of the air and hope for the best. A great story about a great man that will help you better understand the origins and ideas of the men who framed American life as we know it.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, great fun, inspiring
Review: Although there may not be much else to add to so many glowing reviews, I wanted to add my own five stars just because I loved this book so much. The book is brilliant, and great fun. What a wonderful and inspiring story, and what gorgeous writing! Adams is a forefather and a president for America to take great pride in.
Rating:
Summary: John Adams by David McCullough
Review: The book is written in an easy-to-read narrative which will
capture the interest of any American history enthusiast.
John Adams was a graduate of Harvard College, a United States
President and busy advocate for legal clients. In 1772, he
appeared in over 200 Superior Court cases with famous clients
like John Hancock. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress.
Jonathan Sewall concluded early that Adams was headed for
greatness. His marriage to Abigail was an important milestone.
In his famous Dissertation he declared that "Liberty must at all
hazards be supported." Adams was a prime mover of the Declaration
of Independence. The work has a plethora of photographs in the
center. These famous portraits range from John Adams to
Richmond Hill, Benjamin Rush, Elbridge Gerry and Tim Pickering.
The book has some important details about his early family
life in Braintree , Massachusetts. This work makes good reading
for a large constituency of readers. It should be required
reading for people in their senior years of high school and
early collegiate years.
Rating:
Summary: Masterfully written biography
Review:
I am impressed with the author's approach to our second president's biography. He writes in a fluid, narrative form that makes the book easy and interestimg to read, and John Adams seem to be a a real human being with whom you can relate. He deals with Adam's faults as well as his positive traits, and his challenges and relationships with others, as well as his love and respect for Abigail. A remarkable man. One reviewer bemoans Adams' and Jefferson's attitude toward slavery and the fact that the "slave trade" was not condemned in the Declaration of Independence, forgetting, apparently, that the slaves were legally purchased valuable property then, and that at the time, slave holding was an accepted practice throughout the world. The Congress at the time was trying to bind the states together, not to drive wedges between them. This book does not indulge in questioning the cultural practices at the time of John Adams, but rather attempts to describe and explain them. I think the author does a masterful job, and depicts the genius of our founding fathers--and especially John Adams--as accurately as possible. I think he does a wonderful job, and makes the history of the day a delight to read, and understand. As far as I am concerned, at least, McCullough has done a masterful job, and he depicts John Admas and his contemporaries neutrally, while still remaining sympathetic to their problems and the fine line they walked in seeking their independence from Great Britain, putting their lives on the line in the process. I fail to see how any American today can find fault with the fathers of our country, considering the information they had, the education available to them, and the monumental task they faced. For myself, I am unutterably grateful that such men were available, with their wisdom and foresight. I am particularly impressed that they recognized the dangers of a democratic form of government, and rejected it in favor of a Constitutional representative republic, which, it seems, since that time we have gradually, insidiously, relinguished in favor of the socialism we are living under today, irrespective of the Constitution they so carefully crafted. John Adams, as our first vice-president, second president, representative to France and England, and a recognized genius by most historians was certainly one of the most influential of our founders, and deserves the gratitude of us all, considering his life in retrospect. Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN(Ret)
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
.
Rating:
Summary: John Adams ¿ Action Hero!
Review: John Adams? Action Hero? You bet. If all you remember from history class is "his rotundity," you missed the boat on one of our greatest, most influential presidents.
JOHN ADAMS proves that history doesn't have to be boring. McCullough is a masterful storyteller, dropping us into the action on Page 1 with a scene any expert novelist would envy. Here is Adams, mounted on his horse, about to ride through a harsh winter to an event that would forever change the course of American life and liberty. And it only gets more exciting from there. Before the publication of this wonderful biography, Adams was largely forgotten in the grand scope of American history. That's all changed. McCullough has shown us that Adams was either present or highly influential at nearly every important event in early American history. Whether we realize it or not, Adams' presence continues to influence our country.
I can't tell you what a great time I had with this book. Every topic covered - Adams and his family, his relationship with Jefferson, his diplomatic career, his views on France and Holland, his early law practice, his presidency, his final days -they're all handled in expert fashion. Not to be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Good writing, shallow history
Review: If you're looking for an introduction to His Routndity and the honorable path he followed in life, this is the book for you. If you have a working knowledge of the late 18th century, you'll be disappointed. As always, McCullough's prose is clear, simple and direct, and he's picked a good subject. Even a bare bones rendering of Adams' well-lived life would make good reading. Unfortunately, McCullough doesn't really flesh out his subject, writing a book that is little more than a timeline. McCullough's thesis? John Adams was a great guy. I wish I was oversimplifying, but I'm not, and I found myself asking many more questions than the book answered. What caused a person like Adams -- a successful lawyer with a loving family and a secure home -- to gamble everything on a revolution? McCullough says Adams thought independence was the only way to secure American liberty, but doesn't explain why or trace the evolution of his thoughts, a crucial element in any biography. Why was a passage condemning the slave trade struck out of the Declaration of Independence? Because, says McCullough, Adams and Jefferson were enlightened, and opponents were troglodytes in powdered wigs. Joseph Ellis, in his excellent "American Sphinx," pointed out that the Virginia slave market had been flooded with imports in 1775. Slaveholders like Jefferson saw the value of their "property" go down considerably, and condemned the slave trade not because it was a crime against humanity, but because it was bad economics. McCullough cites Ellis in his bibliography but doesn't even take note of this assertion, which is hard to miss in "American Sphinx." There's plenty more to dispute, chiefly McCullough's rose-colored view of the Federalists, who he loves as anti-slavery and ignores as proto-oligarchs: However upright he was, Adams believed, like most of his contemporaries, the common people were unfit to rule. McCullough's history serves the hagiography, and rarely goes below the surface of the facts. The exclusive use of letters to tell the Adams' story is a mixed blessing: while John and Abigail's love comes through clearly, McCullough inadvertently swallows the Adams' paranoia, a trait as persistent in the family's genes as baldness (John Quincy Adams, in 1834, put an "enemies list" in his diary that might have made Nixon squirm). The moves of a Hamilton, a Pickering or a Jefferson, in the Adams' telling, are made chiefly to hold John Adams back, and McCullough, for the most part, accepts the barracks mentality as the real account. And so it goes. The book is all the more disappointing because McCullough is a brilliant historian and has done much better work: "The Johnstown Flood" (1968) is a terrific book that uses the disaster as a canvas for a fascinating portrait of a Pennsylvania coal town and the societal structure that exacerbated the tragedy. There, the main subject becomes the backdrop for a larger, well-told story. "John Adams," for all its subject's virtues, is little more than a campaign biography. McCullough obviously wanted more people to appreciate our second president, which is a noble task. But the best biographies are as much about the times a person lived in as the person. McCullough keeps Adams' times at arm's length so we may admire the man, a Titan apparently out of sync with his age. In doing so, you come away with little understanding of Adams' importance in American history, or why you've read 650+ pages about him. But yeah, he was a great guy.
Rating:
Summary: A must for any library...
Review: This amazing description of the birth of our country, the politics, the men and the era are brought to life with incredible detail. I found it interesting how different the people were from what I had learned in my high school textbooks. This is a must read for anybody.
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