John Adams

John Adams was not born an extraordinary man. Yet through hard work, iron-clad character, and a stubborn New England spirit, Adams was able to do many extraordinary things. David McCullough, the bestselling author of 1776 and Truman, introduces us to the "father of independence" in his superb book John Adams. This biography is the story of revolution, of a new nation struggling with foreign relations, and mostly of a remarkable man. John Adams was a constant letter writer, which opened the way for McCullough to write not just the historical facts, but the personal details of Adams' very thoughts. This book will transport you to the very moment in time.

John Adams was a man of many devotions, and we are presented with them all. As a statesman and writer, Adams was devoted to his thoughts and ideas. As a revolutionist and president, Adams was devoted to his country. But more than all the others, as a father and husband, John Adams was devoted to his family. His relationship to his wife is as romantic as any steamy novel. And though John Adams spend much of his life away from home for the cause of the United States, he spent a great deal of time writing to and thinking of home.

In the end, this book is a very informative and entertaining read. McCullough has a talent for presenting history in such a way, that you feel a part of it, and John Adams is no exception.

Left to his own devices, John Adams might have lived out his days as a Massachusetts country lawyer, devoted to his family and friends. As it was, events swiftly overtook him, and Adams--who, David McCullough writes, was "not a man of the world" and not fond of politics--came to greatness as the second president of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of a generation of revolutionary leaders. He found reason to dislike sectarian wrangling even more in the aftermath of war, when Federalist and anti-Federalist factions vied bitterly for power, introducing scandal into an administration beset by other difficulties--including pirates on the high seas, conflict with France and England, and all the public controversy attendant in building a nation.

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

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 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.