BOOK REVIEW: John Adams

Book Review – John Adams, by David McCullough

-Christopher Carroll

 

David McCullough’s John Adams is deserving of every accolade it has received and then some. Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, the book is already well known by many. Beautifully written, wonderfully researched and engagingly told, McCullough can safely claim to have written a page-turner.

McCullough’s infatuation with the second President of the United States is evident throughout the book. Adam’s career is painstakingly studied, every career choice and parcel of correspondence leads McCullough and his audience to appreciate Adam’s role in the creation and propulsion of the American experiment. It becomes clear that Adams, a yankee from Massachusetts, a farmer from modest means who made a name for himself through hard work and dedicated study, epitomizes the ideal American citizen and servant.

While the book is devoted to John Adams, McCullough necessarily devotes great amounts of research and writing to one of the other famous founders of the era, Thomas Jefferson. At times, it is easy to forget who the principal character of McCullough’s study is, Adams or Jefferson. McCullough makes clear the complexity and subtlety of the friendship, partnership, conflict, and competition that existed between the two great men. In doing so, McCullough’s preference for Adams seeps through the pages.

****

John Adams, the voice of the Declaration of Independence, is clearly an underappreciated force in the lexicon of American statesman. The roles he played in Congress in the drafting and defense of the Declaration, his role as a foreign diplomat in France, the Netherlands, and England, and his honest work as the first Vice President and second President of the United States make him one of the most important public servants in American history.  Without his famous temper, intellect and stubborn pursuit of American interests, it is doubtful that the American experiment in democracy would have proved as successful as it has.

While Mr. McCullough’s writing and research are exemplary, the most striking facet of the book is the importance McCullough attributes to Adam’s wife, Abigail, without whom it is clear John’s career and life would have been vastly less fruitful. McCullough leaves his audience in awe of Abigail Adams. Though forced to spend long periods of time separated while John was serving in Philadelphia, France, England and the Netherlands, she was nevertheless John Adams’ rock, confidant and most trusted advisor.

While John Adams is remembered and studied today in high school history classes, McCullough makes it evident that without Abigail, Adams likely would not have been the man we now know. High school history teachers would do well to remember Abigail Adams, who is just as much an American Founder as was her husband. Like her husband, Abigail was in every way an American hero, supporting a family during extraordinary revolutionary circumstances by herself while simultaneously supporting and counseling her husband in Philadelphia and abroad. McCullough’s appreciation for Adam’s strength of character is matched only by his appreciation for that of Abigail’s.

John Adams was an absolute pleasure to read and will be found enjoyable for students of American history and for those who are simply curious. Our politicians today would do well to emulate Adam’s career, examine the strength of character exhibited by Mr. and Mrs. Adams. They, in particular, were never willing to compromise their dedication to better the lives of their neighbors nor did their commitment to the American cause ever falter in the face of self-preservation or interest. They did not seek fortune, nor did they find it. They did not seek power, yet they wore it well when thrust upon them. Our own politicians must look to John and Abigail Adams for an example, for they showed that dedication, hard work, self sacrifice and love of one another and one’s country will always beat oppression, greed and the seizure of power. They exemplified the qualities necessary in effective leaders. Who is to say what American politics would be like today if we had a few more John and Abigail Adams’. In all likelihood however, Washington D.C would be a much different place.