I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Adams has become my favorite founding father because he, like myself, cannot learn to keep his mouth shut to save his life. Or in his case his legacy. Adams was a man ahead of his time his respect and friendships with learned woman was breath of fresh air. Humorous, interesting and provides content that is timely in our current quest to continue this experiment with democracy.

Interesting analysis of a flawed yet endearing old curmudgeon! Focuses narrowly on John Adams’ post-presidential writing, so I’d recommend this to readers who already know the basics of Adams’ life and want to dive deeper.

An interesting review of the philosophy and personality of John Adams.

5.0 Stars

An engrossing and incisive study of the politics, personality, psychology (and variable place in the pantheon of American patriarchs) of the impliable John Adams. Based on Adams's writings over the many years of his retirement at Quincy, Ellis shows with plenty of evidence that: "[m]ore than any other member of the revolutionary generation, politics for Adams was psychology writ large, a heaving collection of irrational urges that moved across the social landscape..." As Adams had done at Quincy, Ellis brings Adams and the founding generation down to earth with all its foibles and contradictions. His analysis of Adams's famous correspondence with his political nemesis and old friend, Thomas Jefferson, allows us a deep look into the workings of this improbable friendship and how it reflects the tide of American politics over the centuries. No scholar knows the Founding Fathers like Joe Ellis. If you have even the slightest interest in the legacy of the revolutionary generation, this is a book you should not miss.

Joseph Ellis is, bar none, my absolute favorite author on Revolutionary America. Accessible and informative, he does an excellent job painting a vivid picture of John Adam's life and personality. You really feel like you understand Adams as a person after reading Passionate Sage. The retrospective nature of the book feels a little gimmicky at times, and I don't think it necessarily benefits from viewing everything through Adam's post-retirement life, but it doesn't suffer from it, either. I especially like the ending, where he explores why John Adams had fallen out of the American mythos, and how he regain his rightful position in our national pantheon.

I would have rated this 5 stars, but for the baffling fact that Ellis never once mentions--in a book explicitly about Adams' character and legacy, no less--the Alien and Sedition Acts that Adams signed as president, which surely tainted his legacy far longer and more seriously than any of his famous, irascible outbursts of candor and skepticism.

Irascible, contrarian, and fascinating.

Ellis' "American Sphinx" was an unsparing and intensely interesting look into the quixotic and generally duplicitous character of Thomas Jefferson. This earlier work on John Adams takes the same approach of looking at the man's character and how he thought moreso than his political accomplishments with a particular focus on Adams post presidential life.

Adams has always been one of the more interesting of the Founders because he was so very human. He wasn't the stoic marble man like Washington nor the wide eyed ideological dilettante like Jefferson. Adams was always... Adams. Cantankerous, punchy, vain, and simultaneously the Founder that was both the most and least self aware.

Ellis theorizes that Adams reveled in being contrarian to the point that his fierce intellectual independence often resulted in his isolation. Time and time again this proved true and while on one level Adams realized this, he never really changed. Naturally that damaged his early reputation within the pantheon of the Founders but it was the release of his papers on microfiche that enabled modern scholars to dive more deeply into his very impressive, and sometimes very entertaining, writing.

Ellis covers all this with a generally sympathetic approach because frankly, it's hard not to sympathize with Adams even at his most annoyingly argumentative.

Dense but excellent! Many books have been written on John Adams, so I thought I'd read one of the shortest (it still took me 6 weeks!!) to dip into to see if I wanted to read more. I do. Ellis aims his work on Adams post-presidential life & by the subtitle can surmise the focus. He does however provide commentary on pertinent events throughout his life that shaped him personally and his political thinking. A pretty amazing and complex man whom many people continue to find off-putting r/t his disagreeable persona. Just a reflection of his own struggle with personal demons- in this day & age we would say he was a perfectionist, his harshest critic & yet still craving the good regard of others for his contributions. Boy what a thinker, amazingly prescient, and though rooted in a classical philosophy, he still was progressive in thoughts on slavery and the subservient role of women.

This is a warm, engaging and scholarly look at the under-appreciated John Adams.

He had a absolutely first-class, brilliant mind. His prescience, during his long retirement, about what lay in store for the United States is astonishing. His appreciation of strong, smart women and his willingness to engage with them as his intellectual equals puts him far ahead of most of his peers in the revolutionary generation.

Ellis celebrates, among many other things, Adams' contrarian streak, his insistence on a realistic, pragmatic approach to politics and policy (both very lawyer like traits), his sharp, sharp pen, his sense of humor, and his impatience with efforts ( already well under way during his long lifetime) to turn the American Revolution into the stuff of mythology. There is so much to admire in Adams. Even his flaws, so evident and un- airbrushed by "puffers" during his lifetime or by historians after his death, help humanize him. He is so much more accessible, warts and all, than the other "Founding Fathers".

Joseph Ellis writes about John Adams' life after his presidency. It is a good study of John Adams thoughts, writing, family life and other activities when no longer fiercely involved in politics. The writing is excellent and a better read than most novels.

I like it when I learn something new when I read. There were many times in this book where I learned something new. Quite a feat when I have read a number of books about John Adams.