| |  | Author: David Mccullough
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Category: Book
List Price: $30.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  768 reviews
Sales Rank: 292972
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1123
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 2.2
ISBN: 0786236523
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.44092
EAN: 9780786236527
ASIN: 0786236523
Publication Date: December 2, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The life and times of John Adams September 8, 2008
I remember being taught much of the life of Jefferson and Washington in the creation of the United States but little of John Adams. Thank goodness for David McCullogh's work and for making John Adams live again. Some of the most interesting reading for me was the number of trips to Europe for treaties and for loans to our young country that Adams made at great risk to himself and to his family. Also I was surprised at Jefferson's treatment of John Adams. Jefferson was really treacherous and undermined Adams at every turn. However, Abigal Adams made sure that Jefferson, in her letters to Jefferson, gave him his set down. John and Abigal Adams supported Jefferson in friendship and even took care of his daughter for a lengthy time and Jefferson seemed to disregard that friendship. Enough can not be written or said about this founding father of our country. As Americans we need to understand the contributions that Adams made in the founding and the setup of our country and how it works and functions to this day. Adams is also the founder of the American navy and insisted that we needed to have this security in the early days of our country to protect the country. The biography also shows the press during this time to be just as strident, vindictive, overbearing and deceitful as it is today if not more so. Also Abigal Adams by virtue of her letters is very much a modern women in beseeching her husband for the rights of women in the new country. John Adams should be read and reread to understand the forming of our country and its continuance today
Pulitzer Prize Winning for Good Reason September 1, 2008
It's pretty much an excercise in repeating praise to comment upon this stellar biography of John Adams, and so I'll just limit my comments to say that the lauding of the readibility of this book combined with the well written insights into this Founding Father and early president are all well placed. There is clearly a well researched effort that brings the reader into the world of John Adams and family as well as by necessity in close brushes with Washington and Jefferson too.
It's sadly interesting to see the attempts at criticism from the lesser luminaries whom it appears, probably have more chance at being read in rebuttal to McCullough than their own primary efforts would appear otherwise.
The proof, as it were is in the pudding. While this work is very well referenced and based in solid research, it's value is that it reads cleanly and clearly inviting the common reader in to know and understand better both the man and the times. To have approached it otherwise, as some appear to suggest with a more academic emphasis, would no doubt have endeared it to those whose lives are spent in the midst of dusty tomes and intellectual sophistry , but the point is that because it is so seamlessly written and interestingly presented, the impact is much broader for the effort and the bonus is that the accurasy really doesn't suffer for it, except to the narrowest of academics who appear to need to justify themselves by casting stones from their ivory towers.
Well worth the time and effort to read.
5 undisputed stars.
Bart Breen
The first American Political Intellectual August 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the field of historical writing there is this great chasm. There are the intellectual Professional University Scholars who delve into the abyss of historical matter and come up with the historical truth. Unfortunately their writings are boring and state the rather moribund cold facts. On the other hand we have great writers who also do their due diligence but are able to write a coherent historical accounting of the past.
David McCullough is a writer of that other ilk in writing an historical perspective. John Adams happens to be his second best writing in his oeuvre of works.
His detailing of the life and times of John Adams is a work of historical importance that actually brings back a time of life in the early formation of the United States of America. His writings of the correspondence between Abigail Adams and John are remarkable. The following of the raising and the lives of their offspring are indeed new founded and compelling. The recording of John Adams forays with the other founding fathers and his travels abroad are indeed both interesting and compelling. Adam's relationship with Thomas Jefferson is fully explained and exposed.
McCullough goes on to explain the complete political philosophy of John Adams. This is indeed a great read. I consider David McCullough to be a true and actual historian for the common folk. Five Stars No Problem!!!!
An Exceptional Read... August 18, 2008
One of the best books I have read in years. I highly recommend it.
History comes alive! August 13, 2008
It's so much easier to learn & remember history when the writer allows you to become intimately involved with the subject and the period. David McCullough's writing is so personable, so charming, and so precisely informative that I walked away from this book with a deep appreciation of Adams and the time in which he lived. I believe McCullough could fascinate his readers even if he wrote about the telephone book! It was hard to put this book down, I always wanted to know what was coming next. His descriptions of time & place were very visual, putting the reader directly in the midst of the story -- seeing the colors, hearing the voices, feeling the tension, learning about small details. The people he writes about are recognizably human and vulnerable, yet the reader can't help but feel awe for what these people accomplished under such seemingly hopeless situations. One of my favorite history books!!
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