John Adams by David McCullough Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of John Adams
Book Review: A winner!
Summary: 5 Stars
As thorough as any of McCullogh's books. Lots of interesting tidbits of information on his relations with Jefferson, Franklin, Washington and his beloved Abigail.
McCullough examines both the good and the bad of this "forgotten" founding father.
Book Review: Adams finally gets his day
Summary: 2 Stars
In his recent book about Alexander Hamilton, Richard Brookhiser declared that it was impossible not to love John Adams. Maybe for John Adams, but the irascible old revolutionary has been enjoying a comeback, culminating in this recent work by David McCullough. In fact, Adams never went away. He has always been part of the pantheon of founding fathers, it's just no one could adequately explain what he was doing there. It's a formidable task, given that Jefferson declared independence and Washington won it, Madison gave us the Constitution and Hamilton made it work. And Franklin was Franklin. Knowing he suffered by comparison, Adams could only desperately cling to Jefferson late in life and the services they rendered together during the Revolution. That was the real cause, he insisted, long before upstarts like Hamilton and Madison arrived on the scene.
Along comes McCullough, ready to take that relationship a step further. He knows Adams can only benefit alongside the real Jefferson - the slave owner, intriguer, and vindictive manipulator - and succeeds in painting him as a real cad. And yet he has to back off at some point, for these two will eventually reconcile and later die on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration. What McCullough needs is another cad to show up and he finds him in Hamilton. Casting all pretensions aside, he launches a blistering attack on the one man Adams hated above all others, suggesting that old John had been lurking over McCullough's shoulder the whole time he was writing this book.
Labeled threatening, treacherous and rampaging, the portrait of Hamilton is all Adams could ever hope for. Hamilton, of course, was no more an angel than the rest of them, but even Jefferson and Madison would grudgingly grant him his due. McCullough, like his subject, remains hostile to the end, as if determined to carry on the vendetta begun by the Adams family following their defeat in 1800.
Now lest we think that presidency was a total disaster, the peace with France is trumpeted with incredible fanfare. McCullough forgets to add, however, that it was essentially born out of pique. Forced to name Hamilton as inspector general of the army, and rebuffed at the same time in another shameless attempt at nepotism, the president might as well have sniffed, "If this can't be my war, then I don't want to play anymore."
With Hamilton now the common enemy, McCullough starts to get sloppy. Jefferson's secret dealings with the French, designed to undercut and humiliate Adams, were a simple misunderstanding, he tells us. And that was no sore loser high-tailing it out of Washington on the morning of Jefferson's inauguration, rather an ex-president who simply wanted to catch the early coach home. The pandering reaches outrageous proportions when Gerry of gerrymandering is dubbed an anti-party man, his conversational note about Hamilton wanting to set up the United States as a province of Great Britain allowed to slide as part of the record. If Adams had indeed said such a preposterous thing, and snide remarks were never beneath him, it would have become McCullough to take him to task on it. Instead, he tacks on yet another label from the equally snide, and tiresome, Abigail.
On a personal level, no mention is made of the cheap shots Adams leveled at Hamilton's parentage, and with good reason. James Hamilton had abandoned his son, who nevertheless made good. John Adams all but abandoned his two younger sons in his quest for public service, and Charles, for one, came to a wretched end (Thomas didn't fare much better). If Charles ever unburdened himself to Hamilton while he was clerking in his law office, McCullough dares not speculate. Better to gush over the oldest son, Junior, like John and Abigail did time and again.
Long after Hamilton was gone, Adams continued to stew about his place in history. His only hope, he surmised, was to go back to the beginning. As observer noted at the time, he held cheap any reputation not "founded and topped off" during the Revolution. And so, despite the shabby way Jefferson had treated him, he came crawling back, convinced whatever legacy he might enjoy was irrevocably tied to the cult of the Declaration. It had to be a bitter pill to swallow, and at one point Adams surely must have admonished himself, "Damn, why didn't I write the thing when I had the chance!"
Book Review: Adams or Jefferson?
Summary: 4 Stars
Another fine addition to McCullough's line of Great Man biographies (Truman, Mornings on Horseback), the story of John Adams revolves first around his family, second around the Founding era, and third, his resulting and fascinating relationship with Thomas Jefferson.
Adams' relationship with Abigail, probably the most famous Founding Mother, is central to his life. One does wonder, however, if his marriage was so important, why did he spend so much time away from her. His roles as Revolutionary political leader kept him Philadelphia and New York, his roles as envoy kept his across the Atlantic in London and Paris. Yet the sincerity of their love comes through in McCullough's rendition of the voluminous letters.
McCullough clearly likes Adams and they seem to share certain basic values. Jefferson does not come off so well in this telling, in part due to McCullouch's personal inclinations and in part due to Jefferson's own significant shortcomings. In addition to his continuing ownership of slaves, the book reveals Jefferson's personal political duplicity, his financial ineptness, and a certain selfishness. Jefferson had a distressing habit of departing first from Williamsburg and later from Philadelphia for Monticello at the worst times.
In the end Adams and Jefferson reconcile at the urging of Abigail and a series of remarkable letters results. The reconciliation is no small feat given the viciousness of the political attacks between their parties.
McCullough would elevate Adams above Jefferson in the American pantheon. This judgment is perhaps justified in their personal characters and because Adams played a more consistent part in the forming of the Nation. Adams showed up for work everyday and Jefferson didn't. The reader must decide who left a larger and more indelible imprint on our polity. Personally I would side with Jefferson and his authorship of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and the Declaration of Independence. However, the story of Declaration is instructive: Jefferson mostly wrote it, but played no role in its adoption while Adams played a key role in its adoption by the Continental Congress. On another score, Adams and Jefferson (along with Franklin and Jay) were appointed to negotiate the peace treaty with Great Britain. Jefferson stayed in the US and Adams, along with Jay, obtained an agreement.
A standard McCullough work - part scholarship, part entertainment, and part American boosterism.
Book Review: Adams was a better friend of Jefferson than portrayed.
Summary: 5 Stars
McCullough explains Adams very well. However, Jefferson's shortcomings are monumental to McCullough. Why not see them as mutual contributors? For example: Adams was miserable with his task as Vice President for eight years. On the contrary, in four short years Jefferson wrote the rules for procedure of the Senate. They still exist today, and General Roberts said they were the foundation of his Robert's Rules of Order. The most significant contributions of Adams AND Jefferson were as Nation Builders from 1770 to 1790, rather than as Commanders In Chief from 1790 to 1817! They BOTH were honorable men. They both had flaws -- see Mercy Otis Warren's history of the period. McCullough is a very "readable" biographer, and versatile, and he has the voice of a moderator of books and TV. We look forward to his bio of Franklin.Book Review: Adams was certainly not Bush league!
Summary: 5 Stars
At 656 pages, plus another hundred pages of source notes and bibliography, this volume comprises an extremely thorough and well-documented study of John Adams. Much of it is derived from correspondence with his highly literate and intelligent "best friend" Abigail who remained a total of six years apart from her husband, running the farm at Braintree while her husband helped create a new nation and then helped conduct its business in Philadelphia, Paris, the Hague, London, and Washington.The reader cannot but come away impressed by Adams's courage and steadfastness of purpose. As he himself recognized, he was but one of many, and perhaps less extraordinary than Jefferson or Hamilton. Yet Adams seems the most virtuous and wise. A learned farmer of absolute honesty and great self-discipline and devotion, he suggests by way of contrast to Reagan--the TV actor--and George W. Bush--the cheerleading Daddy's boy weaned on oil field speculation and a baseball franchise--why we are in such a fix today, and why the world holds us in such low esteem!