John Adams

This biography of the second President of the United States is by the esteemed historian whose biography TRUMAN won a Pulitzer Prize. McCullough tells of Adams's life as a farmer and lawyer, his relationship with his beloved Abigail, and the role he played in the turbulent events which led to the founding of a nation. He explores his relationships with the other Founding Fathers, especially the important differences with his rival, Thomas Jefferson. A New York Times Editors' Choice selection for 2001.

"[C]ombines scholarly research with the readability of historical fiction." - Jean Stern (Book, 6/1/01)

"[McCullough] is...a master storyteller whose sentences flow with sturdy pacing and seamless grace. Those familiar with McCullough's televised voice-overs can almost hear his lean, crisp voice recounting the story of Adams' life." - Gabriele Weinberger (Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.), 6/10/01)

"As in his magisterial TRUMAN, McCullough spins out the story of John Adams through scads of solidly researched anecdotes of the sort that breathe real life into nonfiction. Never does McCullough's lively prose let his tale drag down into the torpors of academe. JOHN ADAMS is that rare, solid, scholarly history so well written it's truly a pleasure to read." - Richard F. Kochanek (Boston Globe, 5/27/01)

"McCullough's finely crafted and eminently readable JOHN ADAMS would doubtless please the founder whom Democrats dubbed 'His Rotundity.' But in pandering to the highly remunerative national yearning for heroes, David McCullough denies Americans the critical lessons in liberty and democracy that every history of the Early Republic should teach." - Hermann Dertinger (Harper's, 9/1/01)

"The authentic John Adams has been concealed too long in the glamorous shadows of Jefferson and Washington, and some rectification is past due. McCullough's biography will go far to provide it, for none before it--not even Gilbert Chinard's classic of a generation or more ago--has attained its height of narrative art. But that is only to be expected of the writer who is our historian laureate in waiting." - Ernie Fosselius (Washington Post Book World, 5/27/01)

'[A] lucid and compelling work....Writing in a fluent narrative style that combines a novelist's sense of drama with a scholar's meticulous attention to the historical record, Mr. McCullough gives the reader a palpable sense of the many perils attending the birth of the American nation and the heated, often acrimonious politics of the day. He conveys the momentousness of the actions undertaken by Adams and other members of the revolutionary generation, as well as the daunting odds against them, not only in winning independence but also in establishing a form of government that would endure acr - John R. Oneal (New York Times, 5/22/01)

top presidents & heads of state books

John Adams - David Willis McCullough +w This biography of the second President of the United States is by the esteemed...  read more

2.  Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin +w 3.  Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell +w 4.  Founding Brothers - Joseph J. Ellis +w 5.  Living History - Hillary Rodham Clinton +w 6.  My Life - Bill Clinton +w 7.  His Excellency - Joseph J. Ellis +w 8.  Mornings on Horseback - David Willis McCullough +w 9.  The President's House - Margaret Truman +w 10.  American Sphinx - Joseph J. Ellis +w

top united states - colonial period books

Mayflower - Nathaniel Philbrick +w Nathaniel Philbrick's new history of the Plymouth Colony details five decades...  read more

2.  Hemingses of Monticello - Annette Gordon-Reed +w 3.  The American Revolution, 1763-1783 - William E. Hartpole Lecky +w 4.  Creatures of Empire - Virginia Dejohn Anderson +w 5.  Britain and the American Colonies 1740-89 - Alan Farmer +w 6.  An Early History of Carolina - John Oldmixon +w 7.  Don't Know Much About the Pilgrims - Kenneth C. Davis +w 8.  The Shame And the Sorrow - Donna Merwick +w 9.  Food in Colonial And Federal America - Sandra L. Oliver +w 10.  The First Way of War - John Grenier +w