John Adams

Overshadowed by the lustrous presidents Washington and Jefferson, who bracketed his tenure in office, Adams emerges from McCullough's brilliant biography as a truly heroic figure--not only for his significant role in the American Revolution but also for maintaining his personal integrity in its strife-filled aftermath. McCullough spends much of his narrative examining the troubled friendship between Adams and Jefferson, who had in common a love for books and ideas but differed on almost every other imaginable point. Reading his pages, it is easy to imagine the two as alter egos. (Strangely, both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.) But McCullough also considers Adams in his own light, and the portrait that emerges is altogether fascinating. --Gregory McNamee

Product Description
In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as "out of his senses"; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the most moving love stories in American history.

This is history on a grand scale -- a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.

But ... there are a couple of large "buts" about this book.

The first is, in some ways, the "flip side" of the strength of this book. As with his life of Harry S Truman, McCullough is bent on giving us a sense of John Adams's life as he lived and felt it. But this emphasis on experience shortchanges the dimension of Adams that he most would have wanted posterity to know: Adams was an intellectual, often one of the most daring and profound thinkers of his time, and a key figure in what he deemed the greatest American contribution to world civilization -- the development of Americans' ideas about politics and constitutional government. Unfortunately, McCullough gives short shrift to John Adams's writings on these vital topics, writings over which Adams labored with such devotion and urgency. He does not grasp why Adams's magnificent pamphlet THOUGHTS ON GOVERNMENT (1776) was as important and influential as COMMON SENSE and as vital a landmark in the evolution of Americans' thinking about constitutional government, nor does he grasp the significance of Adams's other revolutionary writings. He quotes a few choice bits, retails some superficial conventional wisdom about them, and moves on. Interested readers should instead consult two books by C. Bradley Thompson -- JOHN ADAMS AND THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY [Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1998] and THE REVOLUTIONARY WRITINGS OF JOHN ADAMS [Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2000.]

The second problem is McCullough's use of Adams's own words. Adams scholars will be alarmed and dismayed to find familiar quotations turn up in these pages truncated, even garbled. The reason is not hard to find. Turn to the last pages, where McCullough provides his references, and you will find that he is depending on Charles Francis Adams's 19th-century edition THE WORKS OF JOHN ADAMS, published between 1850 and 1856. The younger Adams was the best historical editor of his generation, but in the process of editing his grandfather he smoothed out John Adams's syntax and left the texts he published generally unreliable.

To be sure, the vast multivolume ADAMS PAPERS project has not probed far into John Adams's life. Certainly, however, for the period covered by Part I of this three-part life, the volumes are finished, and McCullough could have used them easily.

So, too, McCullough fails to take account in his pages of the burgeoning scholarship on John Adams; though he lists the books in his bibliography, his account of Adams's life leaves them far astern.

The challenge of writing a popular biography is considerable, but it should not be met at the expense of ignoring the intellectual dimension of one's subject or of scanting the extensive recent scholarship dealing with the person you're writing about. As with H. W. Brands's THE FIRST AMERICAN, on Benjamin Franklin, McCullough provides the joys and virtues of a good story but does almost nothing to explain why that story of a great life matters beyond its sheer entertainment value.

-- R. B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School


McCullough's kindlier-gentler Adams   May 23, 2001
John Stark Bellamy II (Cleveland, OH USA)
155 out of 182 found this review helpful

Although it is not his best book, McCullough largely (not to say "hugely," a sloppy modifier for which he has a repetitive weakness) delivers on the high expectations for his thick biography of the Braintree Sage. His research is good and he has skillfully employed the two best aspects of John Adams' life in his account: Adams' own voluminous, revealing writings and his marriage to the irresistible Abigail. His accounts of Adams' finest hours--the creation of the Declaration of Independence and his refusal to declare war against France in 1798--are dramatically structured and emotionally moving. The only real quibble with his treatment of the long-underappreciated Adams is that, like Catherine Drinker Bowen two generations ago (check out her bodice-heaving account of John & Abby's courtship in "John Adams & the American Revolution")McCullough seems to have yielded to the impulse to soften the edges of the oft-curmudgeonly Adams. It wasn't just his principled character that left his life littered with political enemies, and McCullough downplays his hero's rough edges in his quest to make John Adams another Trumanesque Man Of The People. It's a stirring read, though, and may lead lucky readers back to Adams' own writings, most especially the Autobiography, Diary and his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson.


Our 2nd President . . . Without the Singing and Dancing   June 11, 2001
michael b sachs (chicago, il United States)
136 out of 140 found this review helpful

My curiousity in John Adams first piqued by repeatedly in my youth watching the musical "1776" (of which Adams is the main character), I looked forward anxiously to McCullough's latest take on America's 2nd President. It didn't hurt that McCullough's bio "Truman" is still perhaps my favorite political biography of them all. With all these high expectations, I was waiting for my hopes to be dashed. But, nothing could be further from the truth.

"Adams" is a terrific piece of work. Relying on a treasure trove of letters and correspondence written by Adams and his tremendous wife Abigail (both of whom were compulsive/obsessive writers), McCullough replays the history of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Washington Presidency and Adams's tumultuous four years as President with vibrant storytelling and just the right amount of detail without getting weighed down.

In MuCullough's view, Adams was a brilliant, determined, forthright, nonpartisan, stubborn politician who was unabashedly American and ambitious for higher office only to the point that public service (according to Adams) was the greatest calling of all.

Anybody looking for a line by line history of America's birth, from 1776 to 1800, will probably be disappointed. McCullough skips over the details of the American Revolution and the drafting of the Constitution. He instead tracks the diplomatic journeys of Adams, who travels to England, France and Holland with Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson (both occasionally) as they try to negotiate various peace and commercial treaties.

The best surprise of the book? Abigail Adams, an amazing woman living entirely ahead of her time. Without her, McCullough obviously believes, John Adams would never have achieved his status in American history.

The only disappointments in the book? A skewed and very negative portrayal of Alexander Hamilton, and a less-than-complete discussion of why two of Adams's sons, Thomas and Charles, came to financial and physical ruin, while another, John Quincy, became our 6th President.

Though not quite as entrancing and new as "Truman," "John Adams" has its own charm. It's an amazing journey with America's inception, and a reminder of the greatness of all of our Founding Fathers, perhaps the most misunderstood of all being the delightfully stubborn and pigheaded Mr. Adams.


Duty, Honor, and Action!   July 12, 2001
Donald Mitchell (Boston)
74 out of 90 found this review helpful

John Adams as a subject and David McCullough as a biographer were made for one another. Adams was a prolific letter writer and essayist whose wife, family, and friends also wrote a great deal. With so much raw material from and about Adams to choose from, McCullough could emphasize his obvious talent for creating a smooth narration through simply connecting the most pertinent written materials authored by the key figures.

Most people who read this book will gain three important lessons:

(1) even the most successful people look to their personal lives for their real satisfaction;

(2) exploring deep relationships with remarkable people is far more rewarding than knowing lots of people; and

(3) serious mistakes and antagonisms will dog even the most successful person, so you have to take yourself with a large grain of salt.

John Adams is eclipsed in most histories of the Revolutionary period by the story line of building the new republic, and the lives of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. As a result, your perception of John Adams probably is limited to his role in defending the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre, encouraging the break with Britain, his ambassadorships, and the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts during his presidency. From that, you will have a perception of a man who saw his best days in 1776 and may wonder vaguely how his son became the 6th president.

If you are like me, this book will totally change that perspective. His best days were clearly those after he left the presidency when he could enjoy private life as a farmer. His son was raised from a small boy for public life, accompanying his father to France for diplomatic service during the Revolution. John Adams also had a talent for making tough decisions that showed up well in his encouragement of George Washington to become commander-in-chief, his advocacy for the Revolution, selecting Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence, his steadfastness in finding allies in Europe regardless of protocol, his steady focus on getting sea power for the United States, and his attempts to avoid war with France while president.

On the other hand, his style made him frequently misunderstood. He believed so passionately in his ideas that he often offended people by the vigor of his pursuit of them. From those extreme actions, people assumed that he had secret, extreme views in favor of authority and monarchy . . . which was probably not the case. Mr. McCullough is probably a little too gentle in forgiving Adams for his sometimes offensive ways because of the purity of his intentions.

His life also helps anyone better understand American history because he was bedeviled by communications and travels delays more than any other American of his day. Decisions about politics normally had to be made in light of limited and out-of-date information. So the man on the spot had to use his best judgment. Many interesting examples of this are well covered in the book.

In many ways, this book is almost a triple biography of Adams, his wife Abigail, and Thomas Jefferson. The interactions of the three are the most interesting parts of the book. Clearly they were among the very most talented of their age, and you get to see how the relationships formed, were put under pressure by public life and politics, and reasserted themselves with leisure and retirement.

My main complaint about the book is that Mr. McCullough could have included a lot more about the implications of what Adams believed and did. For example, although Adams was like Washington and wanted there to be no political parties, his presidency saw that unhappy event occur. How could Adams have helped maintain the consensus that there should be no parties? Clearly, he would have had to have been more active in cleansing his own Federalist supporters . . . which would have required a break with Washington's choices. Adams also kept us out of a war with France. However, would such a war have likely been very serious for the United States? France was well occupied at the time fending off every monarchy in Europe. So, although the book raises many delicious subjects like that, you will have to think them through on your own. That's a good way to learn to think independently, so this is a blessing in disguise.

Another limitation of the book is that Adams is forgiven too easily for the Federalists passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which clearly could have destroyed our civil liberties. How could someone who had fought for liberty do anything other than oppose such legislation with every ounce of his strength?

After you finish reading this fine history, I suggest that you think about how you could learn from the example of John Adams. What did he do well that you need to do better? What virtues do you have that he lacked?

Even in the midst of crisis, be sure to notice and enjoy the wonder of life all around you!

One of the Brothers   October 20, 2001
M. Allen Greenbaum (California)
60 out of 64 found this review helpful

"In the cold...New England winter, two men on horseback traveled the coast road below Boston, heading north. The temperature, according to records kept by Adams' former professor of science at Harvard, John Winthrop, was in the low twenties."

One can almost hear the amiable yet dramatic tones of historian David McCullough, punctuated by paintings of New England blizzards and the sound of hoofbeats. (McCullough is a frequent narrator of documentaries, notably those of Ken Burns.) McCullough's familiar cadence resounds through this extremely well written best-seller. The details never slow the reading or obscure the portrait; instead, source materials (much of it from the Adams' personal letters) illuminate and concretize his subject. McCullough writes clearly, forcefully, and with an ear for detail, humor, and anecdote.

Overall this is a flattering portrait of Adams' longtime service as lawyer, revolutionary, writer and philosopher, diplomat, politician, and farmer. The book could well have been subtitled: "An Appreciation," both because Adams demonstrates so much to admire (including integrity, erudition, patriotism, work ethic, and courage) and because McCullough either doesn't criticize Adams or couches his disapproval by leaving some issues open.

Some readers may suspect a positive bias. Criticized and embattled by Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton--and by the libelous hyperbole of opposition newspapers and rivals--Adams takes on an almost martyr-like persona. To test McCullough's balance, one must read other books on both the Founders and the political culture of the times. Joseph Ellis' "Brothers of the Revolution," for example, is a more analytic, speculative, and impersonal book than "John Adams," and Ellis does not temporize on such issues as Jefferson's affair with Sally Hemmings. (McCullough: "for all the rumors . . . relatively little would ever be known." Ellis: "which was only confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt by DNA studies done in 1998 . . . "). Ellis engages in comparatively more "psychobiography" ("[Adams had] a congenital inability to separate his thoughts from his feelings about them"); McCullough resists theory, and relies more on the literal evidence of his source materials. Also, because it is a biography, we miss some history: Since Adams was an ambassador in Europe during the war, securing French naval assistance and Dutch money, there is little mention of the country's trials military victories in the latter years of the war. Hamilton's role in stabilizing the country through the Federalist papers and establishment of a central bank receive little attention.

There is little question that Adams was, for the most part, the right man for the times, largely steering clear of both Republican and Federalist extremes. McCullough demonstrates that Adams was largely underappreciated by his contemporaries. More than Jefferson, Adams seems the man of the people, as well as the more flexible: Adams was an idealist when the times called for it; a pragmatist when they did not.

McCullough includes some fascinating insights into Adams' personal life, especially his love, partnership, and correspondence with Abigail Adams and their son, John Quincy Adams. One comes away liking Adams, despite certain tempermental qualities implied by McCullough. The book documents just how well (and how often) Adams served his country, no matter what the inconvenience to himself or his family. Overall, the appreciation is well deserved. Readers will likely use this fine biography as a springboard to further investigations, such as Ellis' book. "John Adams" has 654 pages of text; additionally, there are black and white as well as color plates, extensive source notes, and a thorough index. Highly recommended.