Well-researched, incredibly detailed, and well written. A bit long in parts and not too many note worthy moments. All in all, I enjoyed getting to know John Adams on a personal level, but I wouldn't recommend this biography to anyone unless they specifically wanted to know more about this important figure.

MESSAGE TO BIOGRAPHERS: Tidy up your prose, sharpen your story-telling, knowledge up on your source material and bring your entire bag of game, because the gauntlet has been chucked, the bar has been raised and David McCullough has taken off his literary glove and pasted all of you upside your second rate heads. The challenge is before you.

This is, WITHOUT QUESTION, the best biography I have ever read. It is also, again WITHOUT QUESTION, the best story on the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America that I have ever read.

The breadth, depth and detail of this biography is unbelievable. Epic does not begin in describe it. It is epic epicness on an epically epic scale. This is only appropriate given the subject matter.

After finishing this book, I believe the John Adams is the "founding father" I most admire. By making that statement, I do not want to downgrade the importance of the others. Jefferson was arguably more intelligent and was clearly the better writer. Washington was the most beloved and admired figure and without his leadership, the fledgling country would not have had a much needed symbol to rally around and the revolution may very well have failed. Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Samuel Adams, John Jay and all the rest deserve to be acknowledged for their significant contributions.

So why John Adams? Two simple but very important reasons. First, John Adams, through the beautiful prose of McCullough, came across to me as the quintessential HONORABLE MAN. True, he was short tempered and intellectually vain in so far as he very much desired to be acknowledged as "great" by his countrymen. He was a man with many faults.

However, he NEVER allowed any of his shortcomings or personal desires to influence any decision he made or any action he took. He was a ROCK OF INTEGRITY and every action he took and decision he made (though not always correct in hindsight) was what he genuinely BELIEVED to be in the best interest of the country. Thus, he came across in this story as the person who most aptly illustrated the qualities of INTEGRITY, VIRTUE AND MORAL FORTITUDE.

In contrast, Jefferson's "behind the scenes" attacks on Adams and his inability to even acknowledge the same later on struck me as shallow and less than admirable. I point that out not to bash Jefferson (who I also admire) but to demonstrate that even the best of men had moments when they did not act in accordance with their conscience. Everyone that is, except John Adams, who never seemed to waiver from the path his conscience set before him.

The second reason, and one that goes hand in hand with the first, is the absolute devotion, respect and love that he and his wife, Abigail, displayed for one another throughout their lives. Call me sappy and overly sentimental, but I was absolutely awe struck by the level of commitment and affection that they felt and showed to one another even across great distances and during long years when they hardly even saw each other. John and Abigail drew strength and comfort from one another in a way that was special and unique.

This just cemented for me the truly exceptional nature of John Adams' character. He made me proud to be an American and to have such men in my country's history. Anyway, to sum up, I loved this book and give it my HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!! 6.0 Stars.

One final note: for those of you that listen to audiobooks, I wanted to point out that I listened to the unabridged version (all 30+ hours of it) narrated by Nelson Runger and Mr. Runger did an amazing job that I believe added both to my enjoyment and absorption of the material.

Second time reading this book and it’s even better the second time around.

2022-08-09 I just learned the author died last Sunday, 2022-08-07 at 89 years old. RIP The obituary in the Wall St. Journal by Danny Heitman was very good.

3 Jan. 2018 - I listened to this book not long after it came out (2002 or 3?) and really liked it. McCullough narrated the book himself and was very good. Only faults I remember with the book was that the author was far too forgiving of Adams for his:
- foolish/pernicious position on the Alien and Sedition laws,
- allowing/helping the government to expand more than necessary
- foolish promotion of grandiloquent language for addressing the President and promoting the power of the government in general.

Adams was an amazing man. He had an incredible wife and one of his sons, John Quincy Adams, was pretty darn amazing himself.

He was crucial for the American revolution's success and founding of the US.

He was a highly civilizing force in American society and acted honorably, vigorously and effectively in the colonies, in the new republic and in his international capacities too.

The original HBO mini-series did a great job in adapting the book to that medium too. Very dramatic, very powerful. I have not yet seen the further (expanded) TV series yet.

Quite recommended.

Such an endlessly engrossing masterwork that five stars do not really seem to be enough. Informed by peerless research and thousands of personal correspondences between Adams and multiple luminary figures of Americas founding and early years, I am left awestruck by the fortitude and love of life Mr Adams possessed. Selfless in the service of his country, yet crabby and vain, deeply connected to his family, yet gone from them for years at a time, giving his best effort in all things, yet accepting (at times begrudgingly!) of his failures, this book paints a beautifully full picture of a man at the center of a continent in flux, with his faith, code of honor, hardheadedness, and deep belief in humanity's potential as his guiding lights. What a read!

5 Spellbinding Stars

"The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough..." John Adams

This book was so good. Thorough, well written, interesting. I loved seeing so many things that we feel like despairing over happened 250 years ago just as they happen now. Truly there is nothing new under the sun. It was inspiring to read of how Adams and Jefferson could respect each other and even remain friends despite differing political opinions, moral opinions, and even a few personal attacks. Truly, we could all learn to be more forgiving and more ready to overlook faults. We should strive to be hard to offend rather than constantly looking for offenses.

I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading Mornings on Horseback!!!

I took this book home for the summer and read through it slowly because I could not bear it being over. McCullogh tells John Adams' and America's story as well as the best novelist while satisfying the history buff's desire for documents and "truth." Enjoy.

Wheeeeeere's Johnny?

n  n

Thanks to David McCullough's 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning biography Adams will no longer be overlooked as a lesser president of the United States.

Although our currency fails to recognize him, that's never been much of a big deal to me, as my wallet generally fails to recognize any currency... they're so rarely acquainted:

n  n    n  n

John Adams - the president - was complex, ambitious, decisive. John Adams - the book - is complex, ambitious, definitive, and a remarkably readable masterpiece.

McCullough doesn't get bogged down in the tedium of mind-numbing details, and instead writes the book in more of a narrative form, starting with Adams family history, but focusing on his career in politics.

Before I go on, I have to say I was apprehensive about reading this after seeing the family tree at the beginning. Six John Adams? 4 Abigail Adams? 3 Williams? 3 Thomas's? 3 Susannas? Seriously, whoever wrote The Very First Big Book of Baby Names deserves a prize. Too bad it wasn't around in 1691... (parenthetical aside: I'm a little sensitive to this right now as I recently read One Hundred Years of Solitude, and everybody had the same name in that book.)

Adams' life was eventful. Oh, to be blessed and cursed to live in the times of such change.

There's so much that is telling about his life - of his intelligence, integrity, his ambition and conceit.

Although a steadfast patriot, he represented the Redcoats charged with murder in the Boston Massacre. (It is also telling that his friend - a Tory - was the prosecutor.) He took the case when no one else would because, "no one in a free country should be denied the right to counsel and a fair trial." (pg 66)

The love and devotion he and Abigail had for each other is nothing short of amazing. Truly, they were soul mates - if ever there was such a thing. They spent roughly ten years apart, due to his devotion to the nation. Yet their love never faltered. Their correspondence is remarkable in volume and substance - to think they were writing it all in a time before the internet, when the news they'd get could be months old - if it arrived at all. The transparency seen in their letters is a beautiful (albeit slightly voyeuristic) look into who they were and how they loved.

Abigail, in a letter to James Lovell (pg 262) writes of her husband, "Yet it wounds me, sir. When he is wounded, I bleed." They are a couple worth emulating. They endured. They endured.

There's a lot made of Adams' time as president, and before as a politician, his hand in The Declaration, his friendship with Jefferson. I won't go into all that, because it's found elsewhere. (I will say, I loved the part where Jefferson was listening to Congress dissect The Declaration of Independence... ouch...) Yes, there was a rift between them that was bridged. Yes, they both died on the same day, July 4th - 50 years after the signing. (Note just the same date, but the same DAY.) Yes, the country took it as a sign...

That is remarkable. What I find more remarkable is that Jefferson died $100,000 in debt after railing about debt. And Adams died with $100,000 to his name.

Jefferson's acceptance and affection for the French Revolution is appalling, and horrific - especially given the fact that he didn't free his own slaves.

Slavery, well... let's not even go there during this review...

The book was great. You should read it.

Before I leave this conclusionless review though, let me say one more thing that I liked - the parts at the beginning before John was in politics, while he was still a teacher. The things he said solidified my view that things were neither better, nor worse back then... people were people. Human nature does not change.

Of course, I can't find it now... but John said he thought students responded better to a little praise and encouragement, rather than a "thwacking." If I find that quote, I'm going to hang it on my wall.

"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 write a biography of Adams, it transpires, but a more general book on American history. (This eventually became his later work, 1776.) But Adams' character and life made McCullough reconsider, and soon he found himself writing a book solely on Adams.

I confess to having known almost nothing about Adams, and further confess to being dismally uninformed about the revolutionary period in general, especially considering that I majored in history as an undergrad (albeit with a focus almost exclusively in European history). Some dreadful instruction during middle and high school still casts a pall over American history for me, which I realize is a poor excuse now in my fifth decade, but sadly is the only one I can offer for not having really ever undertaken a more thorough study of my own country's development. Since reading this book, however, I've vowed to read McCullough's 1776 and several other notable accounts of the period.

I'm confident that I won't go wrong if I begin with more McCullough, for he is a master portraitist, using apt quotes and vivid description to make his subjects spring to life. Someone (I forget who) remarked that McCullough never wrote a bad page of prose, or something to that effect, and while that may be an exaggeration, it's no exaggeration to say that he is one of the most graceful stylists of our time. He is eloquent without seeming over-enamored of his own words. McCullough's long years as an editor no doubt paid off in honing his own style. Like John Adams, McCullough gravitates toward "classical" modes of oration and style. There's a forcefulness and directness that shines through both in Adams and in McCullough's portrayal of him.

McCullough has a gift for "humanizing" his subjects. Of Adams, he wrote, "He had a brilliant mind. He was honest and everyone knew it. Emphatically independent by nature, hardworking, frugal, he could be high-spirited and affectionate, vain, cranky, impetuous, self-absorbed, and fiercely stubborn; passionate, quick to anger, and all-forgiving; generous and entertaining. He was blessed with great courage and good humor, yet subject to spells of despair." Thus Adams is shown as not a paragon but as someone who had to struggle with his shortcomings.

The author's gift for fleshing out his subjects comes the fore in describing the marriage of John and Abigail. Here is a marriage shown in all its complexity; two people who were ideally suited to one another. I couldn't help but think that in their union McCullough saw something of his own -- he's often cited his own wife as being one of the reasons for his great success as a writer, especially in standing behind his decision to quit his job as an editor and research his first book.

I confess to having done something I usually hate to do -- I saw the HBO special based on the book before I listened to the audio version of it. Normally that ruins a book for me, but here I found it simply reinforced it. Edward Hermann is an excellent narrator, and in fact I've ordered another audio book read by him from my library, Mornings on Horseback McCullough's biography of Teddy Roosevelt.

It's easier for me to relate to history when I have a link with particular people and places. McCullough established that link for me in this period of history, and for that I'm grateful.

A masterpiece.

Is it possible to miss the company of a person who has been dead for centuries at the end of a biography? That’s the power of McCullough’s writing. He takes the ink and paper of years long since past and breathes life into the people and personalities that have shaped our nation’s history.

And really, at its core, this was a love story. The true partnership between John and Abigail Adams is enviable now and almost unimaginable in the 18th century. What a gift to have the letters of two people who deeply loved and respected each other survive the test of time and allow us to learn about them and learn from them.

If you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, don’t mind getting lost in the details of adventures across Europe, the White House, and a farm in Massachusetts, and want to read a biography that is so compelling it feels like fiction: read this.

It took me a year (ok, and then some) to read and every moment has been joy. I’m sad this journey is over!

Popular history. That's what this book is. David McCullough is obviously engaged with his story; he likes Adams, respects the Founders, and knows his history. But he seems shackled by having to tell two stories at the same time, while making both flow into one accessible and engaging narrative.

The first story is the political one. Adams the politician is an energetic, combative creature, not afraid to step on toes or burn bridges in the name of principle. McCullough cuts no corners in fleshing out the particulars of the contemporary political issues, but they still manage to get overshadowed by the force of Adams's personality and thus lose a bit of clarity and readability. The length of the book calls for a little more explanation of ideologies and party lines than McCullough bothers to give, and that cripples the large part of the book he devotes to the political scene. He also intermittently fails to analyze specifically Adams's role in the general drama, which makes it even more trying to follow.
There are highlights: Jefferson's (sometimes turbulent) relationship with Adams is studied in careful detail, with interesting implications. The turbulence of these early times in general are conveyed with verve and detail; the importance of this juncture in American history comes through loud and clear.

The second story is the personal one. The relationship beween Adams and his wife is the centerpiece of the book: an affectionate, engaging affair between two bright and independent minds. The amount of attention given to Mrs Adams forms in itself a worthwhile picture of female life in colonial America, as well a fitting tribute to the exceptional mind that Mrs Adams had.


The major failing of the book is that the two stories aren't given mutual context. It seems unlikely that a man with as rich a personal life as Adams would be as unaffected by it in his public life as this book conveys. I felt that McCullough saved his best efforts for the personal story that he enjoyed telling, while giving the political narrative only by grudging rote. This made it difficult to read the book as a unified whole. A shame, since even the more neglected areas of Adams's life seemed to offer something worthwhile. A solid popular history, but rather too ambitious for it's scope and achievement.

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 also admire his 50-plus years of devotion to his wife Abigail and his family. By contrast, Franklin effectively abandoned his family for 17 years in Europe and was allured by the high life and ladies in France.

The book is at its best in explicating Adams’ character. He came from a 100-year line of farmers and common Puritan folk in Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston now part of Quincy. His father was devout, a deacon of his Protestant church, and expected John to become a minister. Instead he chose law after graduating from Harvard College and a boring stint as a schoolteacher. He wanted to accomplish something of lasting significance and law was a more likely path. On the one hand he criticized himself for the sins of vanity and selfish ambition, while on the other was always driven to fulfill the image and succeeded like few others. Taking Abigail for his wife kept him down to earth, as she was his sounding board and most significant advisor through the rest of his active life. The letters between them are the main window to Adams thinking and personality, and McCullough harnesses them well to reveal his steady good humor, love of people in general, and overall moral optimism

Soon his cases began radicalizing him against the powers exerted by the colonial government, like customs searches without a warrant and the imposition of import taxes without representation. I liked his courage in acting on his belief in a fair trial to the point of defending the British soldiers who killed several colonists who were protesting the Stamp Act in 1770 in a dangerously rowdy manner. He learned the arts of public speaking, of applying logic to negotiation, and of reading people’s motivations and likely actions. His ability to inspire trust and his reputation for honest dealings contributed to his becoming a leader among the Patriot crowd. His effective service as a Massachusetts provincial legislator led to his being included in their delegation to the Continental Congress. And the rest is history, as they say.

After the violence of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, Adams could readily lead efforts to build-up the local militias into an integrated Continental Army and was responsible for nominating the Virginian Washington for command. One last hurrah of the Loyalists had to play out with a failed petition to King George to relent before the majority was ready to assert independence. Compared to Adams, Franklin and Jefferson were surprisingly restrained and inarticulate in terms of pushing their ideas in debate. When it came to drafting the Declaration of Independence with them and two others on the committee, it fell to Jefferson to compose most of the writing, but Adams was its chief advocate and most responsible for its passage.

When the British response was cutting off trade and blockade, the key to success and survival as a nation became recognition of American independence by counties like France, including a source of naval muscle to assert rights of free trade. Adams was sent with the delegation to France to help pull this off. The dangerous trip, accompanied by his young son John Quincy, in a stormy February crossing was nicely covered in the book. Success in Paris came slow, and he only had a junior role. Upon return, he took up the task of drafting a constitution for Massachusetts, which was one of his accomplishments he was most proud of. In 1779 he was sent back to head up negotiations for a peace treaty with Britain. This time he took Abigail and their daughter along. McCullough is especially engaging in probing for the changing reactions of their plebian family to the fashionable and decadent lifestyles of Parisian society and the state of filth and misery of the lower classes.

The book seems to lose energy after this point. His languishing as the first vice president and tenure as president have few high points. The dissension between his Federalist Party and the Republican Party of his vice president Jefferson is given short shrift. When the French began seizing American merchant ships doing trade with Britain, Adams broke with his cabinet advisors (and Abigail) in refusing to join Britain in their war against Napolean’s forces. The libelous press became a target with the Sedition Act, which he felt violated the First Amendment, and did not support aggressive prosecutions as even Abigail wished. Life winds down for Adams after losing the next election to Jefferson. The high point in this book for the long succeeding decades of private life was his ten-year correspondence with Jefferson starting in 1812 through the encouragement of mutual friend Benjamin Rush to put aside their differences. I wish McCullough had done even more than pulling out a few choice sections on their play of ideas.

In the end, I felt the book was great for conveying a sense of the man in his times, but t was missing the elements of critical analysis and perspectives that provided a better balance in his biographies of Truman and Teddy Roosevelt. For example, in Isaacson’s biography of Franklin Adams comes off a bit as a drudge and moralistic party pooper in his time with Franklin in Paris. And the Wiki summary on Adams reveals unclear or contradictory positions of Adams on slavery and heredity legislators like Britain’s House of Lords. For readers interested in the American Revolution, McCullough’s “1776” is a better resource for the drama and broader understanding of how it was that ordinary rural people in a diverse set of colonies came together to form an independent nation. I loved Philbrick’s “Bunker Hill” even more. These relative judgments are subject to the caveat that I did this “read” as an abridged audiobook. I am only aware of missing sections that cover what his reactions and activities were during the period of British blockage of Boston and early battles of revolt, the course of his contentious relations with Jefferson and with Hamilton, and much of Adams; time as an ambassador to England.