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John
Adams
by David McCullough
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 - Amazon.com
Hardcover - 736 pages (May 22, 2001)
Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0684813637 |
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The
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
by Joseph J. Ellis
Paperback - 288 pages Reprint edition (January 2001)
W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393311333
John
Adams : A Life
by John E. Ferling
Paperback Reprint edition (June 1996)
Henry Holt (Paper); ISBN: 0805045767 |
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The
Adams-Jefferson Letters : The Complete Correspondence
by Lester J. Cappon (Editor)
Paperback (September 1988)
Univ of North Carolina Pr; ISBN: 0807842303
America
Afire: Jefferson, Adams, and the Revolutionary Election of 1800
by Bernard A. Weisberger
Hardcover - 352 pages 1 Ed edition (October 2000)
William Morrow & Co; ISBN: 038097763X
Setting the World Ablaze : Washington, Adams, Jefferson and the American
Revolution
by John E. Ferling
Setting the World Ablaze is the story of the three men who, perhaps
more than any others, helped bring the United States into being: George
Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Weaving their three life
stories into one narrative, John E. Ferling delivers a genuine and intimate
illustration of them and, in doing so, gives us a new understanding of
the passion and uncertainty of the struggle to form a new nation.
The three sections of Ferling's study chronologically examine major
epochs in the lives of the three men: youth and early adulthood, the years
surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and finally,
defeat of the British in the Revolutionary War. Through the medium of comparative
biography, Setting the World Ablaze attempts to link personal and impersonal
elements in the contours of the American Revolution and the war that accompanied
it. A professor of History at the State University of West Georgia and
a leading scholar of the Revolutionary era, Ferling draws on a firm command
of primary sources and his own expertise of the period to examine fundamental
issues critical to our understanding of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson,
as well as of the historical period. He abandons the standard iconography
and focuses instead on what motivated and inspired these three men as human
beings. For example, what forces shaped each of the three during his youth,
what was each like as a mature young man before public affairs and fame
changed everything, and what determined their behavior as activists? John
Adams emerges from the narrative as the most underappreciated hero of the
Revolution, while Jefferson is revealed as the most eloquent but also most
overrated of the Founders. Personal anecdotes from all periods of their
lives add to Ferling's already rich portrait and give the reader a unique
sense of how Washington, Adams, and Jefferson negotiated the many challenges
they encountered throughout their lives.
--Bertina Loeffler Sedlack, Amazon.com
Hardcover - 392 pages (July 2000)
Oxford Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0195134095
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