John Adams | David McCullough | Where are the John Adams of today?

John Adams | David McCullough | Excellent Book!

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John Adams

	John Adams David McCullough Simon & Schuster, 2008 - 768 pages average customer review:based on 761 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Where are the John Adams of today?

Of course it is only a metaphorical question, but if there were more politicians around who adored their wife and their country, America would be a pretty different place. He said what he thought and he thought deeply. He had a strict moral obligation to his God, country and his family and would never consider going against any of these things. This book reveals all these things about a complicated man. It is not a dry academic novel but a fascinating story. You cannot find too many of these out there and I have had to read many of those to get through bachelors degree and halfway through my masters. One of the things that impressed me the most was the level with which he treated his wife. In the time that he lived this was phenomenal.

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Excellent Book!

It is an excellent book! It is very long, though. It is like reading history and a soap opera, at the same time !! His marriage to Abigail was trully a partnership!! Read it when you have alot of time and quiet,as it is very revering!

John Adams

John Adams was fiercely patriotic and complicated and McCullough does an excellent job of relating the man to the reader. Adams friendship with Jefferson was extraordinary considering their diverse political views and it is told well. McCollough at his best.

Brilliant biography

There are many more erudite descriptions of John Adams. I decided to write a review because it is my favorite non-fiction book and I felt that the HBO series took the wind out of Adams' sails in so many ways. The HBO miniseries, which I long awaited, bored me to tears. There was none of the excitement in the series that I read in the book. Paul Giamatti's Adams could not speak above a whisper and did not convey, at least to me, the spirit of John Adams, which I read in 2001 and still remember vividly. John Adams had such an interesting and varied life, that to distill it as it was done in the HBO series leaves the viewer questioning how this complex man was anything more than a bombastic autocrat.

David McCullough's use of primary sites and his use of the many letters written to his wife Abigail makes this book one of the most memorable and romantic of all the founding fathers. He clearly writes about his personal life - his treatment of his children, the favoritism of John Quincy, his life-long love affair with his wife and their juxtaposition with his duty to his fledgling country as well as his interest in his own epitaph. He brings to life a human who was so multi-faceted and brings most of those facets to life.

I am not an historian, so I realize there are many things missing knowledge of John Adams. However, that which was included was readable, interesting and kept me turning those many pages with ease.

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History-lite (tastes good, less filling)

David McCullough is to history what John Grisham is to literature: he's lite fare, easily digestable but not particulary nourishing. To me, the book seemed like a watered-down and streamlined portrayal of an important historical figure. It's reasonable well-written and moves along at a good clip; it just seems superficial. I guess that's o.k. if your target audience is people who don't normally read history. If you fall into that category, the JA is probably the book for you. Personally, however, I usually like to read "serious" works of history. History-lite just doesn't seem worth my time....

Not terrible but not recommended.

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