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 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9446 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-03
• Released on: 2002-09-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

Amazon.com Review
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

From Publishers Weekly
Here a preeminent master of narrative history takes on the most fascinating of our founders to create a benchmark for all Adams biographers. With a keen eye for telling detail and a master storyteller's instinct for human interest, McCullough (Truman; Mornings on Horseback) resurrects the great Federalist (1735-1826), revealing in particular his restrained, sometimes off-putting disposition, as well as his political guile. The events McCullough recounts are well-known, but with his astute marshaling of facts, the author surpasses previous biographers in depicting Adams's years at Harvard, his early public life in Boston and his role in the first Continental Congress, where he helped shape the philosophical basis for the Revolution. McCullough also makes vivid Adams's actions in the second Congress, during which he was the first to propose George Washington to command the new Continental Army. Later on, we see Adams bickering with Tom Paine's plan for government as suggested in Common Sense, helping push through the draft for the Declaration of Independence penned by his longtime friend and frequent rival, Thomas Jefferson, and serving as commissioner to France and envoy to the Court of St. James's. The author is likewise brilliant in portraying Adams's complex relationship with Jefferson, who ousted him from the White House in 1800 and with whom he would share a remarkable death date 26 years later: July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration. (June) Forecast: Joseph Ellis has shown us the Founding Fathers can be bestsellers, and S&S knows it has a winner: first printing is 350,000 copies, and McCullough will go on a 15-city tour; both Book-of-the-Month Club and the History Book Club have taken this book as a selection.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This life of Adams is an extraordinary portrait of an extraordinary man who has not received his due in America's early political history but whose life work significantly affected his country's future. McCullough is here following his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Truman, and his subjects have much in common as leaders who struggled to establish their own presidential identities as they emerged from the shadows of their revered predecessors. The author paints a portrait of Adams, the patriot, in the fullest sense of the word. The reader is treated to engaging descriptions and accounts of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, among others, as well as the significant figures in the Adams family: Abigail, John's love and full partner, and son John Quincy. In tracing Adams's life from childhood through his many critical, heroic, and selfless acts during the Revolution, his vice presidency under Washington, and his own term as president, the full measure of Adams a man widely regarded in his time as the equal of Jefferson, Hamilton, and all of the other Founding Fathers is revealed. This excellent biography deserves a wide audience. Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

U.S.P.S. Top Sponsor For Making Movie of This Book~
Having read this book ~ and now seen the 5-part TV series based on David McCullough's book, John Adams, I am all the richer for it!

The obvious reason why the United States Postal Service sponsored and highly advertised this HBO miniseries last summer (2008)-are the thousands of letters sent (or not sent) between Abigail Adams and her endeared (or endured) husband, patriot, father of their 4 children during the tumultuous early years of the birth of our country and all through their married life. The letters are real and exist.

In letters, supposing we write what is on our hearts and minds (and often cannot express in spoken words). Now, imagine if your journals and diaries and personal letters became public domain after 225 years? Surely, your desires, hopes, mistakes and sentiments and faults would be clear to all. (Maybe that is why Jefferson destroyed alot of his.)

Lucky for us! Their letters still remain. Their correspondence stands testament to their intense love and devotion to each other as husband and wife with the heaviness of the burgeoning new-born United States in the background playing out in all its political and very real drama.

An amazing couple..yet, I would have a few questions for them, if they could come back to life.

1.)-Why did you seem to neglect your son, Charles, from an early age?
2.)-Why did you take that horrific political trip to France?

This book shows a human side of John Adams: his ongoing need to sacrifice his time with wife and family for service to the New Country. (He was purportedly gone from his family more years than he was home)

The results are documented in this book, along with snippets of their actual letters. Results for our country were for the better. And perhaps better in family-his older son John Quincy became President. For the worse-his other son, Charles died, I believe at the young age of 30 from drunkeness and debauchery; leaving the reader with the sense of parental neglect on his father's part.

All this amounts to a wonderful book of the influence of two lives wound and bound together by true human philial love in the midst of a whirlwind of chaotic birthpangs of our country. What amazes me, is the courage they had! Also Abigail's influence on Adams, her family and other great men of the day-is tremendous! You can almost see John and Abigail with clasped hands saying, 'For such a time as this,..we were made!'

And then McCullough captures the larger scope of Adams' having to endure the nagging questions, swirling doubts, rebellious children--not to mention the animosity of the early House Representatives, loss of friendships (his close friendship with Th. Jefferson cooled) alienation from Geo. Washington, nearly fatal sea voyages-and try to balance the Pre-Revolutionary Libertinism of France's court, the craziness of King George III (post-American Revolution) with his own ideals.

You get a sense John Adams and wife experienced real life just like the rest of us who aspire to something greater. And not only that, but you get the sense that Providence played a great part in their lives! Abigail openly gives credit to God for help.

The end of the book culminates expectedly with their end of life together-Abigail goes peacefully in death first. Then, on July 4, 1829--and this is the best part--John Adams AND Thomas Jefferson die only a few hours apart on the most conspicuous days of all days--Independence Day. The Providential Hand of God gives these two great men the most final...and fitting Tribute.

This is a MUST-read book. Thank you, Mr. McCullough, for fleshing out this couple's letters for us to read. Unfortunately, the final Episode #5 of the TV series leaves out this incredible, real-life ending.

Outstanding Read
This is the type of book that destroys the belief that history is mostly boring. McCullough has a gift for making history real. Best book of any type I've read in a while.

David McCullough amazes me again
I've read two other biographies by the same Pulitzer-prize-winning author, and his ability to turn correspondence and historical documents into living narratives still astounds me. John Adams was one of the Founding Fathers, and the issues he wrestled with are still important in American life today. Highly recommended.