Rating: 
Summary: History brought to life
Review: David McCullough spins gold once more. This book is not only well researched, but also extremely well written. Many books about the founding fathers and early America can be fairly dry. McCullough, however, presents history as a story. This book flows like a novel with ever really getting hung up at any one point. The author does an excellent job of showing Adams as both a driving force of the formation of America and as a person. Most importantly he presents John Adams life free of any contempory political spin which has poisoned our society so much, even in regards to our historical study and writings. An increasing number of History books are on the market that are obviously written with great bias to prove a current partisian point. Kudos to David McCullough for representing History with honor and also for showing his readers the life of one of the most important, though least talked about, figures in American History.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly written piece of work!
Review: I purchased this book after reading "Founding Fathers" by Joseph Ellis. I was interested to know more about John Adams and others involved in forming our country - The United States of America. It is not your typical biography at all. Mr. McCullough takes you in inside the life a John Adams. You feel as if you were sitting right beside him, feeling his anguish and his struggles, and at last his triumph over adversity to make this great country of ours. The lifelong friendship he formed with Thomas Jefferson is remarkable in itself considering Jefferson's behind the scenes work to discredit Adams at times. There was always one person that stood by him at all times, his wife Abigail. The letters that these two wrote and the diary that Adams himself kept allows all of us to see a time in history unfold in a personal manner. I can't say enough about this book. It is well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: David McCullough Does It Again!
Review: You will speed right through this biography of our second president. McCullough is our best popular historian. His books read like novels. They are as well researched as some ones written by professional historians and, yet, they are written for everyone to enjoy.McCullough makes an excellent case for John Adams being more important than Thomas Jefferson. After reading this book, I have to agree. Adams was not only our our second president but a preeminent legal scholar who had a big hand in writing our Constitution. He had a committed relationship with his wife Abigail although they were apart for years at a time while Adams fullfilled his duties for the new republic. After all, Abigail couldn't take a jet plane back and forth to wherever John was. She stayed home and ran the farm. When Adams died, he did not die rich
I would love it if McCullough would write a book about John Quincy Adams for his next topic. That boy really had an interesting life! He was schlepped to Europe with his father and learned French and Dutch. Then he was sent to Russian as a secretary to the American ambassador when he was in his teens. After all that, going to Harvard was an anticlimax.
Rating:
Summary: Great History
Review: This book is well worth the time of a fairly long book. About time some focus on someone besides Jefferson.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it, borrow it, ...you must read this book.
Review: Another fantastic McCullough book! I love history and this book was a joy to read. I felt as though I knew Adams as I read and wondered at the sacrifices he made for our country. The time away from family and political infighting were new things I learned about. Many of his views on party politics fit in today. If you love politics, history, or just a good biography get this book today!
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Summary: Entertaining and Informative AudioBook
Review: I really enjoyed this audiobook, listening to it while travelling to and from work. Edward Herrmann's voice combined with David McCullough's writing style made me want to keep driving just so I could keep listening. John Adams was a remarkable man and this book delves into his life in a relaxed and easy-to-follow way. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys biographies and historical works. I plan to look up more of David McCullough's works. Very enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book!
Review: A book like this reminds the reader how fortunate and indebted we are to our great writers. They find the materials, put a book together; all we have to do is read and enjoy. "John Adams" is a substantial work; John Adams is a man of substance. Other reviews have covered his life thoroughly and all the contributions he made in generating support for and in winning the Revolution, in getting the constitution written and ratified,and, as our first vice president and our second president, in getting the country headed in the right direction.
Along the way Adams served in many important capacities, met almost everyone important - at home and abroad - and he lived a long time - 91 years. Early in his life he was a teacher; the rest of his life he remained the teacher. Most importantly (for David McCullough, in any case), perhaps, was his passion for writing letters and faithfully recording the important events of his life in a dairy. Everyone, he said, should maintain a dairy. Otherwise the significant events in one's life pass by, and, like a flock of birds passing overhead, are soon out of sight and completely forgotten - leaving no trace behind. But Adams has left us more than a trace of his life - he's left us this massive paper trail - now stored on some 8 miles of microfilm - in his letters to his wife,children, friends, fellow revolutionaries, and political colleagues - and in the personal dairies he maintained. This is a great book, because it is Adams - and those corresponding with him - who supplies most of the information. And it's not just about Adams; it's also about Abigail and their children, about Thomas Jefferson, Ben
Franklin, George Washington, King George III of England, and places - at home and abroad - to name just a few. Most of his comments are of interest to us, because these comments tell us much about Adams and about the times he lived in. By all written accounts we know that Adams was highly intelligent, a voracious reader,articulate, a persuasive orator, energetic, intellectually curious, honest, candid, decent,puritanical, stubborn, and had a sense of humor and read and spoke French just tolerably.Some said he was also arrogant and vain. Adams once advised his son, John Quincy,then a student at Harvard, that education was the key to all things, but, that he should not
study too hard, that he should walk everyday (Adams was still walking 3-4 miles daily at 60), get his rest, seek out the best scholars, pick their minds, observe their study habits,their tutors, and find out what books they read and own. He also warned John Quincy to be careful, because education can make one arrogant! To the charge that he was vain Adams said this: there are different kinds of vanity. Some people take undue pride in their personal possessions, or appearance, or dress. What made Adams intolerably proud was the fact that he'd served others for years, risking in the process his fortune, his health, and his personal happiness, as well as that of his family. That kind of vanity,Adams bragged, was a joy!
Thomas Jefferson wrote that Adams was vain, irritable, insufficiently religious,but otherwise quite amiable, a profound thinker, and a good judge of most things - except science. While Adams did believe in God and prayer, he worried about churches,because they were controlled by human beings. All humans, he thought, have a weakness - an insatiable lust for power. Once while passing through Northern Spain enroute to France, he noted how there was nothing but poverty everywhere - except in the churches - which were opulently decorated and under the control of well-fed - fat even -clergymen. Adams was a keen observer!
In France Adams worked with Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to secure French aid and assistance for the American revolutionary war. Jefferson, wrote Adams, was a man of great ability and devotion - just excellent. Jefferson loved Paris, Frenchmen, and he loved shopping. In his first month in France he purchased 2000 books. He later bought 63 paintings, 7 busts, and one life-sized statue of George Washington. Jefferson
meticulously recorded all his purchases; he just never totaled them. (Jefferson's grandiose lifestyle produced predictable results: he always suffered money problems and he died deeply in debt).
Abigail Adams joined her husband in Paris for a period. Unlike Jefferson, Abagil's assessment of France was negative: everything was dirty, people relied on servants to do all their work, sanitation systems didn't function, arranged marriages were common, prostitution was rampant, and every year produced 6000 new orphans. France, she concluded, was a country that had grown old in debauchery and lewdness, a country where inordinate interest was directed toward personal appearance, frivolity, theater, concerts,public shows, and spectacles. When did anyone work? she asked herself. Abigail didn't enjoy travel very much; she preferred life at home in Braintree, Massachusetts. John
Adams, on the other hand, enjoyed travel - not the kind that involved strenuous sightseeing, but, rather, the kind that "opened the heart to feeling." Abigail moved to London when her husband became the first U.S. ambassador ever to England. As she was being introduced to the ladies of the English court she observed that the royal women had poor figures and were generally plain or ugly looking. "Keep this a secret!"
she wrote. The English princesses, on the other hand, were "quite pretty, well shaped,and had "heads full of diamonds!" She described King George III as "personable, but, of
white brows and ruddy face."
Adams had few successes as ambassador to England - perhaps, he thought, because he was low-born, possessed no fortune, was physically unimpressive, had been an revolutionary activist, couldn't dance, drink, cajole, promise, dress, swear, or flatter
unattractive ladies. He simply lacked the talents needed to be a diplomat.
Time's up! Space's filled up. Read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated
Review: I am a big fan of David McCulloch's (I devoured The Great Bridge, Johnstown Flood, and Truman). I was so psyched to read John Adams but once I commenced reading it I was bored by the constant Abigale/John romance. The Revolutionary War and Adam's presidency were nearly afterthoughts. I was disappointed- I never learned anything useful from the book.
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Summary: We need more leaders like John Adams.
Review: This book is brilliant! I now understand why this book won the Pulitzer Prize. McCullough displays amazing research capabilities in "John Adams," but yet the reader never becomes bored and loses interest. The biography almost reads like a novel and I had to stop a few times to remember that I was reading a non-fiction book. Truly a fascinating account about the life of one of ths most important figures in American history. John Adams has become one of my new heroes.
Rating:
Summary: John Adams, Superstar!
Review: Abagail Adams must be purring with delight somewhere in the great beyond that at last her "beloved friend" is receiving the attention and kudos he deserves. John must be dancing a jig. David McCullough has written a warm and witty definitive biography that flies off the shelves. (1,500,00 hardback copies!) What is all the fuss about? Simply, the average American doesn't often consider John Adams. He was a vague outline of a "Founding Father" whose presidency was book ended by the towering Washington and Jefferson. "Towering" literally--Washington was 6'4" and Jefferson was 6'2". The gently rotund Adams came in at 5'7". Adams rather wistfully noted what a fine figure Washington cut in his dashing uniform. Simply, our country would be a far different place without Adams. His tireless efforts in the Continental Congress, always with the long view and rising above petty considerations assured the U.S.A. would not be a squabbling group of nation states. His principles and integrity in every area of his life serves us to this day. Adams was no saintly do-gooder. He was irascible, thin-skinned and had a fearsome temper. He suffered bouts of black depression. But his unflagging loyalty, brilliance, and statesmanship lifted him above almost all his peers. And something I never expected; John Adams had a wonderful sense of humor, a trait both Washington and Jefferson sorely lacked. He had a wonderful relationship with his wife and appreciated her wit and wisdom. He also thought she was a "Venus," a title not many people would bestow on Abagail Adams! "John Adams" is highly readable using many primary sources and exhaustively researched. Mr. McCullough has a conversational writing style that is rare in a biographer, and he never intrudes. My only misgiving is I felt the author gave Thomas Jefferson a very rough ride, that Jefferson's virtues were not adequately acknowledged. When I closed this book, my main thought was "Thank God for John Adams!"
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
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