Brough's Books - John Adams

John Adams

Books on the Second President of the United States
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America's First Dynasty : The Adamses, 1735--1918
by Richard Brookhiser
Hardcover from Free Press
 
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, )
Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0684813637

 
The Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
by Joseph J. Ellis
Paperback - 288 pages Reprint edition 
W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393311333
 
John Adams : A Life
by John E. Ferling
John Ferling's masterful John Adams: A Life is the most comprehensive single-volume biography of the man who succeeded George Washington in the presidency and shepherded the fragile new nation through the most dangerous of times. Drawing on extensive research, Ferling depicts a reluctant revolutionary, a leader who was deeply troubled by the warfare that he helped to make, and a fiercely independent statesman.
Paperback Reprint edition 
Henry Holt (Paper); ISBN: 0805045767
 
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 
William Morrow & Co; ISBN: 038097763X
 
The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784
by John Adams, L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Mary-Jo Kline, Abigail S. Adams, David McCullough
Hardcover from Northeastern University Press
 
John Adams Reader's Companion
by David McCullough
Paperback from Barnes & Noble
 
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 
Oxford Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0195134095
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 
 
First Family: Abigail and John Adams
First Family: Abigail and John Adams
by Joseph J. Ellis
Hardcover from Knopf
2010-
 
Thomas Jefferson: A Character Sketch
Thomas Jefferson: A Character Sketch
by Edward Sylvester Ellis
Kindle Edition from Timeless Classic Books
 
John Adams
John Adams
by David McCullough
Paperback from Simon & Schuster
 
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
by Woody Holton
Paperback from Free Press
 
My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
by Abigail Adams, John Adams
Paperback from Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
 
The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams
The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams
by John Adams
Paperback from The University of North Carolina Press
 
The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
by Abigail Adams
Paperback from Penguin Classics
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