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A solid and satisfying biography of a key leader in the birth of the American Republic. This book helps make him my favorite of the bunch because of his paradoxical mix of humility and ambition, idealism and pragmatism. Unlike Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton, he didn’t have aristocratic bearings and valued honesty, sincerity, and free thinking as the highest virtues. He appreciated the simple things in small town life and farming and liked doing his own physical tasks like chopping wood. I a...
This is a masterpiece! McCullough writes history that reads like a novel. I know his access to all the Adams correspondence gave him an advantage, but still, the man can write.I didn’t realize what a fascinating man John Adams was and the many personal sacrifices he made for our country.I felt like I knew the Adams family and actually slowed down my reading because I didn’t want the book to end. In fact, I want to read it again instead of the Thomas Jefferson biography next on my tbr list.
McCullough has us believe, for 466 pages, that Adams is generally disliked among the political set of his time and that there is no way he could be elected President: he is anti-slavery, deeply spiritual, a fine family man who loved first his wife, then his children, then farming, and he was always dedicated to doing the right thing (he even defended the British at one point and won the trial: it was the right thing, but not the popular thing to do). But suddenly, on page 467, in what feels like...
Adams always seemed like a dumpy old president, but the man was incredibly physically and intellectually rigorous, and without his undaunted labors that were often overlooked, we might not have had the necessary support to win the war against the British. McMullough is a master. He takes musty old documents and makes them read like fast-paced fiction.
"No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it," wrote John Adams, and this superb biography by David McCullough makes it clear why Adams was undoubtedly sincere in this sentiment. Adams was a plain and honest speaking man who rose to the challenges of extraordinary times. In this biography he emerges from the shadows of the better known presidents - Washington and Jefferson - whose administrations bracketed his. McCullough did not originally intend to
