John Adams
David McCullough (Guest Reviewer - Jessica Elin Hirschman)
2001 Touchstone
ISBN: 0743223136
A powerful & enthralling biography of America's most committed patriot, respected scholar & devoted husband.
Stories, as recorded by Adams himself, about & insights from Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, King George III & The Comte de Vergennes, lend an aura of a Who's-Who of eighteenth century American & European politics.
Guest Reviewer Jessica Elin Hirschman writes:
This is not your father's history. Well actually, it is your father's history -- & his father's & his father's before him -- but you wouldn't know it from David McCullough's enthusiastic storytelling.
John Adams is a strikingly articulate & compelling read, more like the script of an intellectual reality-based TV show or a political thriller, than the biography of one man.
Benefiting from McCullough's painstaking & thorough research of Adams' personal papers (& other diaries & letters of the time), the story of the American Revolution unfolds from the inside out. Yet, as often as dates were referenced, not once did I feel mired in facts & figures.
John Adams is as rich in architecture, landscape, personalities & mood as it is in chronology. Through the nuances & friendships of the period, McCullough conveys the magnitude of Adams' life-journey & the events that literally changed the balance of world power.
McCullough relies heavily on Adams' own correspondence to reveal his daily experiences & work. Adams' letters to & from his beloved wife, Abigail; trusted confident Dr. Benjamin Rush; & on-again/off-again friend & nemesis, Thomas Jefferson, comprise a background that truly returns today's reader to the beginning of America.
What struck me the most as I found myself feeling, not just reading, what happened all those years ago, was the remarkable similarities to our world today. Plus, it was just pure fun to happen across a date that had personal meaning to me (like my kids' birthdays, or a friend's anniversary) & learn what took place two hundred years earlier!
McCullough presents Adams' life in three segments:
Part I, Revolution, tells us how this Yankee farmer made his way to Congress & convinced a fledging group of disparate colonies to go to fight for their political, personal & moral independence against the most powerful king in the world. Here we see Adams' spirit & intellect for the first time.
Part II, Distant Shores, chronicles Adams' career as a diplomat & the years he lived abroad in Paris, Amsterdam & London. His accomplishments were many, but none as chilling to this reader, as the moment he stood before King George III as the first official Ambassador of the new United States of America.
In Part III, Independence Forever, Adams reaps his rewards. He succeeds Washington as the country's second president in a peaceful transition of power; one of the main goals of the Revolution. Despite politics that would rival today's machinations, Adams kept young America neutral in the War between France & Britain, allowing this country to find its footings rather than risk being destroyed in its infancy. Adams founded the nation's Navy, demonstrating to supporters & detractors alike that neutrality, peace & a strong defense were compatible positions.
The accolades that came late in life gratified Adams, but none were as sweet as his reconciliation with Jefferson. Ironically, (& just plain creepy) these two statesmen & only surviving Founding Fathers, who struggled together to word the Declaration of Independence, died on the same day America marked 50 years of the document's significance, July 4, 1826.
I read this book out of curiosity. Why was this book a bestseller? Now I know: because John Adams was an incredibly fascinating person who lived an incredibly fascinating life -- even by today's Hollywood standards. &, because David McCullough is a remarkably gifted writer.
Whether you read history because you like it or you read books because you like them, John Adams is a must on either list.
P.S. Do you know why we address the President of the United States as, “Mr. President?” I do, now.
More from David McCullough: Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt; Truman; The Johnstown Flood; The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge; Brave Companions: Portraits in History; Wars of the Irish Kings: A Thousand Years of Struggle from the Age of Myth Through the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
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