John Quincy Adams: A Life of Resolve and Dedication

Clare L Kremer: A “must” read for every student, James Traub takes the reader back to life in the early 1800’s United States government through the life of John Quincy Adams. It is very detailed, sometimes too much so, but you come away with an intimate knowledge of our 6th President and his gift to this country, who in his 80’s died while standing at his congressional desk, casting his final vote. An added gift, it’s well written.

United States on Sep 20, 2023

amaury jorge lins leal: Excellent book if you want to know american History

Brazil on Jul 03, 2021

Peter M. Beck: John Quincy Adams accomplished little as America’s sixth president, but my what a fascinating and consequential life he led. James Traub makes a strong case in his sparkling and dense biography that Adams’ presidency was the low point of his career. JQ is a unique bridge between America’s founding fathers and Abraham Lincoln. He served all five of his predecessors and came to know his next five successors as well as several future presidents, including the first to be impeached, Andrew Johnson. Adams would meet with Lincoln’s future secretary of state, William Seward and Lincoln himself had just joined the House when JQ fell fatally ill at his desk.

I hadn’t planned to include John Quincy in my first pass at U.S. presidents, but McCullough’s depiction of JQ in his magisterial “John Adams” intrigued me. John was so close to his wife and eldest son John Quincy that I just had to read the rest of the story. The Adams Family provides a cautionary parenting tale. Both John and John Quincy would have three sons, but each would only have one son that would meet their high expectations. The pressure of being an Adams was too much for the other four.

John...

United States on Dec 25, 2019

David H. MacCallum: John Quincy Adams bordered on a child prodigy. He was fluent in German, French, and English. He had a deep understanding of Russian and Latin. He was the new republic’s ambassador to The Hague when he was 24. His diplomatic cables, back to the United States, were models of insight, coherence and purpose. The country’s first president, George Washington, found them to be unparalleled in their sophistication and used their thoughts in his Farewell Address to the nation.

His father, equally stern and flinty, became the second President of the United States, and was always John Quincy’s role model and instructor. His mother, Abagail, was one of the most intellectually accomplished women in the young Republic. Whatever the gene was that conferred intellectual brilliance, it passed for one more generation, to John Quincy’s son, Charles Francis Adams, who became one of the nation’s greatest historians.
John Quincy’s political journey was unusual in the young republic. He started his career as a traditional Federalist, the party of Washington and Hamilton, the party that argued for a strong federal government, with the states taking a decidedly secondary role. But...

United States on May 30, 2016