John Adams

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The enthralling, often surprising story of John Adams, one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot the colossus of independence, as Thomas Jefferson called him who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution who rose to become the second President of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as out of his senses and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history Like his masterly, Pulitzer Prize winning biography Truman, David McCullough s John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel It is both a riveting portrait of an abundantly human man and a vivid evocation of his time, much of it drawn from an outstanding collection of Adams family letters and diaries In particular, the than one thousand surviving letters between John and Abigail Adams, nearly half of which have never been published, provide extraordinary access to their private lives and make it possible to know John Adams as no other major American of his founding era As he has with stunning effect in his previous books, McCullough tells the story from within from the point of view of the amazing eighteenth century and of those who, caught up in events, had no sure way of knowing how things would turn out George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, the British spy Edward Bancroft, Madame Lafayette and Jefferson s Paris interest Maria Cosway, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, the scandalmonger James Callender, Sally Hemings, John Marshall, Talleyrand, and Aaron Burr all figure in this panoramic chronicle, as does, importantly, John Quincy Adams, the adored son whom Adams would live to see become President Crucial to the story, as it was to history, is the relationship between Adams and Jefferson, born opposites one a Massachusetts farmer s son, the other a Virginia aristocrat and slaveholder, one short and stout, the other tall and spare Adams embraced conflict Jefferson avoided it Adams had great humor Jefferson, very little But they were alike in their devotion to their country At first they were ardent co revolutionaries, then fellow diplomats and close friends With the advent of the two political parties, they became archrivals, even enemies, in the intense struggle for the presidency in 1800, perhaps the most vicious election in history Then, amazingly, they became friends again, and ultimately, incredibly, they died on the same day their day of days July 4, in the year 1826 Much about John Adams s life will come as a surprise to many readers His courageous voyage on the frigate Boston in the winter of 1778 and his later trek over the Pyrenees are exploits that few would have dared and that few readers will ever forget It is a life encompassing a huge arc Adams lived longer than any president The story ranges from the Boston Massacre to Philadelphia in 1776 to the Versailles of Louis XVI, from Spain to Amsterdam, from the Court of St James s, where Adams was the first American to stand before King George III as a representative of the new nation, to the raw, half finished Capital by the Potomac, where Adams was the first President to occupy the White House This is history on a grand scale a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship and betrayal, and the far reaching consequences of noble ideas Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived. Free Download John Adams by David McCullough For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr MESSAGE TO BIOGRAPHERS Tidy up your prose, sharpen your story telling, knowledge up on your source material and bring your entire bag of game, because the gauntlet has been chucked, the bar has been raised and David McCullough has taken off his literary glove and pasted all of you upside your second rate heads The challenge is before you This is, WITHOUT QUESTION, the best biography I have ever read It is also, again WITHOUT QUESTION, the best story on the American Revolution and the creatio MESSAGE TO BIOGRAPHERS Tidy up your prose, sharpen your story telling, knowledge up on your source material and bring your entire bag of game, because the gauntlet has been chucked, the bar has been raised and David McCullough has taken off his literary glove and pasted all of you upside your second rate heads The challenge is before you This is, WITHOUT QUES...I LEARNED SO MUCH. I m moved deeply moved at this book and partly at myself SOMETHING HAS SHIFTED INSIDE ME THROUGH THIS READING EXPERIENCE A handful of books have done this for me but not usually two in a very short period of time But. I can t deny what s so SNAP CRACKLE POP BOOKS THAT CHANGE OUR THINKING OUR ACTIONS MUST BE REMEMBERED. this is another one of those books A light switch is turned on in my brain for the first time in almost 65 I LEARNED SO MUCH. I m moved deeply moved at this book and partly at myself SOMETHING HAS SHIFTED INSIDE ME THROUGH THIS READING EXPERIENCE A handful of books have done this for me but not usually two in a very short period of time But. I can t deny what s so SNAP CRACKLE POP BOOKS THAT CHANGE OUR THINKING OUR ACTIONS MUST BE REMEMBERED. this is another one of those books A light switch is turned on in my brain for the first time in almost 65 years I haven t been reading biographies about past Presidents I have some natural interest in Kennedy Lincoln and Obama but I ve never been the girl to run to the history or political sections in book stores seeking out past Presidents to read about WHY THE HECK HAVEN T I Fear of boring dry reading It s amazing how shallow and small my thinking is sometimes Has anyone else ever cried when coming nose to nose with your own stupidity laziness and or shame for allowing yourself to be ignor...Since reading John Adams I have continually been reminded of my delusion of our country s history Today as I saw the conclusion of the John Adams series on HBO I realized I was one of those John Adams saw as deluded by the artistic portrayal of our history in Trumbell s Declaration of Independence Adams was right Too many of us believe Trumbell s view of the Declaration of Independence not acknowledging the many difficulties ove...This is a must read for anyone interested in the American Revolution I would call this David McCullough s masterpiece, except I ve read several of his remarkable books, including Truman and The Wright Brothers, and they are all so good I don t think I could pick a favorite But let s get back to John Adams, who, along with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, was a critical founder of America If you ve seen the impressive HBO miniseries based on this book starring Paul Giamatti and the ama This is a must read for anyone interested in the American Revolution I would call this David McCullough s masterpiece, except I ve read several of his remarkable books, including Truman and The Wright Brothers, and they are all so good I don t think I could pick a favorite But let s get back to John Adams, who, along with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, was a critical founder of America If you ve seen the impressive HBO miniseries based on this book starring Paul Giamatti and the amazing Laura Linney as Abigail Adams , you already know the outline of event...A solid and satisfying biography of a key leader in the birth of the American Republic This book helps make him my favorite of the bunch because of his paradoxical mix of humility and ambition, idealism and pragmatism Unlike Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton, he didn t have aristocratic bearings and valued honesty, sincerity, and free thinking as the highest virtues He appreciated the simple things in small town life and farming and liked doing his own physical tasks like chopping wood I a A solid and satisfying biography of a key leader in the birth of the American Republic This book helps make him my favorite of the bunch because of his paradoxical mix of humility and ambition, idealism and pragmatism Unlike Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton, he didn t have aristocratic bearings and valued honesty, sincerity, and free thinking as the highest virtues He appreciated the simple things in small town life and farming and liked doing his own physical tasks like chopping wood I also admire his 50 plus years of devotion to his wife Abigail and his family By contrast, Franklin effectively abandoned his family for 17 years in Europe and was allured by the high life and ladies in France The book is at its best in explicating Adams character He came from a 100 year line of farmers and common Puritan folk in Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston now part of Quincy His father was devout, a deacon of his Protestant church, and expected John...I haven t read a book this good in years I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn t enjoy this book This is a book about a man, John Adams, but it is also much, muchIt is a book about American Independence, the American Revolution and all the Founding Fathers, the seven most important being George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, George Madison and Benjamin Franklin The book follows all the events from the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutio I haven t read a book this good in years I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn t enjoy this book This is a book about a man, John Adams, but it is also much, muchIt is a book about American Independence, the American Revolution and all the Founding Fathers, the seven most important being George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, George Madison and Benjamin Franklin The book f...No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it, wrote John Adams, and this superb biography by David McCullough makes it clear why Adams was undoubtedly sincere in this sentiment Adams was a plain and honest speaking man who rose to the challenges of extraordinary times In this biography he emerges from the shadows of the better known presidents Washington and Jefferson whose administrations bracketed his McCullough did not originally intend to No man who ev...John Adams is an extraordinary book, and an excellent political history of the beginning of the United States This is the first book I ve read by David McCullough, and I m impressed at his ability to be respectful but blunt, and be serious but entertaining at the same time.John Adams was an unusual man though he had the ambition and vanity characteristic of all politicians, he was a remarkably uncomplicated and generally happy family man The impression one gets from this book is much like John Adams is an extraordinary book, and an excellent political history of the beginning of the United States This is the first book I ve read by David McCullough, and I m impressed at his ability to be respectful but blunt, and be serious but entertaining at the same time.John Adams was an unusual man though he had the ambition and vanity characteristic of all politicians, he was a remarkably uncomplicated a...So good I don t know where to start review to come.I began reading John Adams four years ago, if you can believe it Somewhere along the way I set it down and failed to pick it up again until a few weeks ago I was a fan of David McCullough before I read John Adams, but it has certainly deepened my respect for this incredibly gifted historian I think it s rare for a biographer to leave you with the fe...

John Adams
  • English
  • 22 July 2018
  • Paperback
  • 751 pages
  • 0743223136
  • David McCullough
  • John Adams