John Adams
by David McCullough
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Book Summary Information
Author: David McCulloughEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-09-03
ISBN: 0743223136
Number of pages: 752
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Book Reviews of John Adams
Book Review: "A masterwork of storytelling"
Summary: 5 Stars
The cover of the paperback edition to David McCullough's latest Pulitzer Prize winning effort features an endorsement calling it "a masterwork of storytelling." Evidently the editors at Simon Schuster didn't realize that many could view that quote as a double entendre.
Few would deny that McCullough is a writer of genius. No matter the subject, he writes history that is compulsively readable and often unforgettable. As a consequence, McCullough has brought serious works of history to a far broader audience than anyone else in modern memory. Who else could write 600+ page biographies of long dead white men that sell and are read like pulp fiction? The danger, as many lesser known (and quite possibly envious) historians have pointed out, is that McCullough tends to fall in love with his subjects and delivers a story, while undoubtedly entertaining and lucidly written, that is far from the accepted view of events. In other words, McCullough ends up "telling tales," as Princeton historian Sean Wilentz suggested in a withering review of "John Adams" shortly after its publication.
Indeed, if modern historians see Adams as no great man, McCullough plainly disagrees. His Adams is a man of enormous consequence to the direction and fate of the American Republic, second only to Washington as the critical man of the Revolution, which is interesting when one considers that Adams never served in the military and was out of the country for the vast majority of the struggle. For McCullough, Adams helped secure his country's freedom on battlefields of a different sort, but no less important than Saratoga or Yorktown. He was the universally recognized "first man" of the Continental Congress; the primary leader of the push for independence in 1776 (McCullough titles one chapter "Colossus of Independence"); the industrious diplomat that made sure the work got done and the books balanced in Paris (which led to the collapse of his friendship with Ben Franklin) and a loan secured from the Dutch at a critical time late in the war. If he was a failure as president, McCullough argues, it is only because he avoided the warmongering of his fellow Federalists during the Quasi-War with the French and equally rejected the Jeffersonian Republican view that the French Revolution was a beautiful thing, despite its excesses. Moreover, Adams refrained from the political mudslinging and skullduggery that his adversaries - Hamilton on the Right and Jefferson on the Left - actively engaged in or tacitly, but thoroughly supported and encouraged. McCullough's Adams, therefore, is more than just a great man; he's a noble man, too.
In order to make his case, it seems, Thomas Jefferson needs to get knocked down a few pegs (or more). For all of his reputation for genius, McCullough clearly sees a lesser man in the sage of Monticello. Throughout the narrative Jefferson is cast in a bad light. McCullough misses no opportunity to emphasize and repeat Jefferson's shortcomings: a wastrel with an insatiable appetite for luxury; the consequent debt that he toiled under for a lifetime; disingenuousness with friends and colleagues; and the slaves he kept (and occasionally seduced). Adams, by contrast, was frugal, solvent, honest, faithful and an inveterate hater of slavery. In a personal letter written to Benjamin Rush during his retirement, Adams wrote, "Jefferson has succeeded, and multitudes are made to believe that he is pure benevolence...But you and I know him to be an intriguer." It is doubtful whether Rush - a staunch Republican and life-long friend of Jefferson's - would have concurred, but Adams certainly converted McCullough to that perspective.
Maybe "John Adams" is nothing but "popular history as passive nostalgic spectacle" as Wilentz ungraciously concludes. But I respect McCullough's right to historical interpretation and believe that he has done Adams some justice, even if it comes largely at the expense of an over-revered founding father. Best of all, reading McCullough is like swinging on a hammock on a warm spring day: pure, relaxed enjoyment.
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