John Adams American Revolution

¶ … intended to present to his readership a dual biography of Jefferson and Adams. However, because he felt most Americans knew nothing of Adams, he decided to focus more on just Adams instead. Essentially the book is the life of Adams through the lens of Adams. He also made sure to include the plethora of correspondence among John Adam and Abigail Adams, his wife. He also includes correspondence between Adams and Jefferson. The correspondences are what really make the book noteworthy among those the praise the book.

It's a narrative style, heavily documented biography of Adams. Background of the book The timeline centers on the life of John Adams, which is from 1735-1826 and in and around the greater Boston area. He attended Harvard and experienced the period of the American Revolution. The biography continues with the post-war period and the tough adjustment the colonies experienced. From then onward, Adams was sent to Europe in order to form diplomatic ties there and after served as vice president within the new government.

It ends with Adams living all the way up to the war of 1812 as well as seeing his son elected president. 3. Background of the author David Gaub McCullough, born July 7th 1933 is the author of John Adams and also works as a historian. He won the National Book Award along with the Pulitzer Prize twice for his work. Furthermore, he is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was born and raised in Pittsburgh.

McCullough chose to wrote the book because he wanted to provide context and setting to the life of John Adams from an authentic lens. Although it is somewhat bias because it is written in a narrative style, the addition of document information provides a definite perspective and provides a biographical account of Adams. The author also provides a good account of Adams albeit without quotes from Adams. 4. Application People can learn how the United States resisted the British.

The simple things like the several acts passed i.e., Quarter Act and the Stamp Act helped put the reader into the time period which the book was written on, the period before, during and after the American Revolution. "The first news of the Stamp Act reached the American colonies during the last week of May 1765 and produced an immediate uproar, and in Massachusetts especially." (McCullough, 2008 59) Including the correspondence really provided actual primary source information that backed up and supported the writer's narrative. 5.

Evaluation If there are some critiques, they are that McCullough barely mentions the political writings of Adams; and what his opinion is concerning the two major works is mainly brief quotations surrounded by a somewhat conventional commentary and plot summary. Essentially, the author has little to say concerning Adam's political thoughts and perspective. However, the beginning chapters, especially the quote used to introduce a chapter one was quite memorable. "You cannot be, I know, nor do I wish to see you, an inactive spectator ..

we have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them." (Abigail Adams) (McCullough, 2008 17) This came from his wife and it felt as though it explained the kind of man that Adams had to be and.