Rating: 
Summary: Best Biography
Review: McCullough does a fine job with this book. It is the best biography I've ever read. He makes John Adams come alive, and gives great insight into the workings of the politically active at the end of the 18th century. He originally began working on a book about Jefferson, but switched his topic because Adams story is so compelling.
Rating:
Summary: VERY MONUMENTAL WORK
Review: I read this book with the feeling that I finally was able to study American revolution and the history surrounding it in full. I felt as I was becoming a part of the American history, of the beginning of the greatness. What a wealth of knowledge and information. This is a very massive, very monumental work of the historical proportions. If you like history, if you want to know what really happen, people involved, reaction of the world, relationships and why we live as we live, you have to read this book. I think this book should be a part of the educational process in our schools and higher institutions. Thumbs up. Thank you very much.
Rating: 
Summary: Long overdue popular study of an American Revolution hero
Review: This book is well written and informative, and has brought about a long overdue rethinking of the value of our 2nd president. The problem that I had with the book is that in its attempt to laud Adams, Mccullough felt he had to make everyone else look small and coniving. The book breezes through some of the less noble examples of Adams character. Adams nearly blew our deal with the French during the Revolution because of his puritan prigishness. The way the book treats Jefferson is a crime. There is hardly a page dealing with the Alien and Sedition acts, and that is what Adams, in my opinion has to be judged for. This act gave the government the power to jail anyone who was open about their opposition to the government. Jefferson is portrayed as a small man, always jealous of Adams, trying to thwart him at every step. the book gets downright catty in some of the things it says about Jefferson. What should be pointed out is that Adams supported the Alien and sedition acts, and when Jefferson became President he did not feel the same need to go round up Adams' followers. This is no way means that Adams was a bad man; this kind of open loud opposition to government was something new in the world, and would have been seen as seditious anywhere else. The free speech clause of the constitution hadn't been interpreted, nor had the boundaries of the concept been set. "free speech" was still an open concept. Anyone that wants to read a fairer treatment of the period and its personalities should read Ralph Ketcham's book on James Madison. Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton built the government after the revolution. After the revolution started, Adams essentially just bitched.
Rating: 
Summary: McCullogh cheerleads for our 2nd President
Review: I enjoyed the book, but impartial it's not. From McCullogh's viewpoint, the reason that no one liked Adams was because everyone else was a jerk. It's a fairly blunt observation, but I don't know how else to put it. Adams was a man of integrity and history has given him short shrift, but this defense is too vigorous. According to McCullogh, Adams' failings in France and England and during his first term in office had nothing to do with Adams and all to do with Jefferson and Franklin. Never mind that Adams wasted much of his political capital in a fierce battle on what to call Washington (Mr. President). Adams was a man of integrity that kept us out of war and who was a keen architect of our form of government. But he was a lousy diplomat and an average politician.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a bird through the air
Review: My interest in this book came from the current presidential situation, the tail end of father-son presidency. John Adams was the 2nd POTUS (I learned the term from Tom Clancy) and his son, John Quincy Adams was the 6th. Plus the author David McCullough was the voice over from the movie Seabiscuit, which I saw this summer. Anyway, like my opening, the book was a bit tedious in parts, sharing more information than necessary at times. But what a life for one man to live!! Arduous journeys, both domestic and abroad, Adams may have been the ultimate patriot perhaps sacrificing more for his country than anyone in the history of the United States of America. Big claim, but I think McCullough's book ably backs it up. A few gem quotes to share. Writing to Abigail about the war with England on New Year's Day in 1776 and borrowing a line from the play Cato by Joseph Addison, and later used by George Washington, Adams related the battle with King George III troops and the crumbling Congress with "We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it". Then Abigail, also keeping her chin up, and referencing my favorite subject writes to her sister "I hate to complain. No one is without difficulties, whether in high or low life, and every person knows best where their own shoe pinches" These two were made for each other. Lastly, and this quote inspired me to more actively commit my opinions of the books and movies I experience to paper, comes from Adams encouraging his grandchildren to keep diaries...for if not their travels would "be no better than a flight of birds through the air", leaving no trace. Adams left more than a trace, rather deep grooves for others to follow. And we are the nation we are because of John Adams.
Rating: 
Summary: Do NOT, I Repeat, Do NOT READ THIS BOOK!!!
Review: So, I picked this book up...and I had high hopes for it. I thought,"Yeah, a book about John Adams. I really haven't read much about him. Should be a good book." OR NOT!! Let me tell you, this book is horrible. Filled with 600 pages of worthless information about his personal life, I thought that I was being tortured. Actually, I was being tortured. The only exciting part of the book is when Adams fights for his life on a ship...and I was excited in hope that Adams was going to die so the book would end. I wanted to die myself, but, continued to read this book in hopes of seeing a brighter part of the book. The best part....the index, which helped me write a report on this POS book. Unless you want to be tortured in a new and very BRUTAL way..don't read this book. You might think of taking your life if you do read it.
Rating:
Summary: The Voice of the American Revolution
Review: David McCullough's John Adams seeks to restore John Adams to his rightful place among the Founding Fathers of the United States. Adams traditionally gets limited coverage in elementary and high school history texts as a result of his presidency being sandwiched between the two titans of the American Revolution, Washington and Jefferson. Washington is primarily known for leading the American Army during the revolution while Jefferson is known as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Interestingly, as McCullough convincingly argues, it was Adams who orchestrated the appointment of Washington to leader of the army and similarly orchestrated the appointment of Jefferson as the primary drafter of the Constitution. Among their contemporaries in the Continental Congress, while Jefferson was known as "The Pen" of the American Revolution as a result of drafting the Declaration, Adams was known by the equally impressive nickname, "The Voice" of the American Revolution. Even Jefferson referred to Adams as "Our colossus on the floor" when referring to his role in the Continental Congress. Adams leads a truly amazing and long life. Although the second President of the U.S., and born in the eighteenth century where average longevity was less than 40 years, Adams lived until he was 90. No President lived longer than Adams until the twenty-first century on October 11, 2001 when Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States, gained the record. (For the trivia wonks out there, Gerald Ford will also surpass Adams should he live until March 17, 2004.) Unlike Reagan however, Adams remained sentient until his dying day. He lived long enough to see his son, John Quincy Adams, become the sixth President of the United States, once again, the only President ever to witness this feat, until the present time with the Presidents Bush. Featured even more prominently than Washington or Jefferson in both his life, and this book, is Adams' wife Abigail. Abigail is a full partner in her husband's life, unlike most women of the time, and becomes an astute businesswoman as she manages the family farm to a great degree of prosperity in John's absence and is considered, even by her husband's contemporaries, as his most important advisor. McCullough divides his work into three parts. The first part deals with Adams life from his birth in 1735 to the autumn of 1776 when the Continental Congress adjourns, and Adams sails for France to gain its support in the war against Great Britain. The second part of the book is devoted to the years from 1776 until 1788 when, for all but a few months, Adams resided in Europe representing the United States. Adams was based in Paris, the Hague and eventually, in London as the first U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James. His, and later Abigail's who joined him in Europe in 1784, contemporary accounts of Louis XVI of France and George III of Great Britain are fascinating and frequently quite humorous as these Massachusetts Yankees enter two of the most opulent royal courts in Western History. The third, and final part of the book is Adams return from Europe and his political rise to become the first Vice President of the United States serving under Washington, and then President of the United States. Encountering the seemingly inevitable rise of party politics, Adams becomes its first victim. Leaving Washington D.C. in 1801 as an old man of 66, Adams lives another 25 years and maintains an ongoing stream of correspondence which McCullough does an excellent job of summarizing. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book, and arguably its centerpiece, is McCullough's study of the relationship between Adams and Jefferson. The two men meet in 1776 at the Constitutional Convention, and remain intertwined until their deaths fifty years later. Fascinating on one level as the account of these two great minds at work, and on a more general level it is a fascinating study of lifetime relationships and how they change and mature over the course of five decades. Adams and Jefferson started off as strong allies advocating Independence of the British Colonies from the Crown, and then as staunch allies as they represent the U.S. in Europe. Like expatriates to this day, Adams and Jefferson overlook each other's differences, and spend considerable time together both working for the common good of their new country, but also as friends with a common background, traveling throughout Europe (periodically only for the purpose of tourism) and socializing with each other's families. Returning to the United States, Adams and Jefferson find themselves both playing prominent roles in Washington's presidency, but their friendship is severed by the growing influence of party politics and the different opinions of slavery held by each region. Adams viewed slavery as a massive injustice, and quite correctly foresaw that it would lead to massive civil unrest in the future. Adams believed passionately in a strong Federal government that had the right to supercede the rights of individual states for the benefit of the country, and became a leading member of the Federalist party. Conversely, Jefferson, a slave owner, believed in a loose confederation of states and believed in the primacy of states rights, becoming a leader of the Republican party. McCullough believes that Jefferson ultimately betrays Adams in order to gain the presidency for himself. After a schism of many years, the two ex-Presidents resume a correspondence, and resume their friendship. The letters between the two men are truly a national treasure, kudos to Mr. McCullough for bringing them to the attention of so many contemporary readers.
Like any great biography, McCullough leaves the reader wanting to learn more about some of the other personages depicted in the book including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams. Perhaps the greatest surprise in the book is McCullough's portrayal of Jefferson as a brilliant, yet highly imperfect man. It would be interesting to know if Jefferson's own biographers interpreted his weaknesses in a similar manner to that of Mr. McCullough.
Rating:
Summary: OK
Review: It was good, kinda. I didn't really read it, but all I have to do is read reviews of books and its like I read it. Maybe that's why my name is Reed. Whatever. It just APPEARS to be good. I can guess what John and his wife did... Go Thomas Jefferson! Go not High Federalists! Go David McCullough! Go away XYZ guys! WOO HOO! I AM A MANIAC! A MANIAC! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM KING OF LIMBURGER! I AM THE GREAT KAZOOKA, SPIRIT OF THE PLATIPI! BOW TO YOUR MASTER! John Adams wouldn't bow. He's too well placed. AND I SHALL VAPORISE HIS SPIRIT FOR THIS! MWAHAHA!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Popular History
Review: David McCullough has provided an illuminating biography of John Adams in a way that is more than the standard presidential biography of wars, treaties, and laws. McCullough offers the readers of this fabulous text an inside view of who John Adams really was and what he truly believed in. Adams is usually overlooked in history, except to note his signing of the the Alien and Sedition acts. However, after reading McCullough's biography, it is apparent that we should look more to the character of Adams when studying history. McCullough shows us an individual who with remarkable intellect, works tirelessly to help shape the country in a manner that would be longlasting and to the benefit of all people. This text is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the forces that shaped the United States in its early years.
Rating:
Summary: Can't Put Down
Review: McCullough tells the story of one of America's leading founders in an orignal manner that removes much of the common lustre awarded to notables such as Jefferson and Franklin. This work helps appreciate the tremendous initiative and struggle to get the American revolution both started, funded and concluded, away from the battlefield and in the corridors of power.
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