Reading Books

***This is a book-review I recently wrote for an AP US History Class, that I thought you might all find useful and like to reply to. The book is David McCullough's Pultizer Prize-winner, John Adams.***
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Based on the reading experience offered by David McCullough’s John Adams, it is clear that the author set out to write the book with the intention of being as detailed, and objective, as possible. It is not immediately clear from the start of the book that McCullough intends to make any specific statement about John Adams himself; he makes no sweeping pronouncement of Adams’ superiority or inferiority to any of the other founding fathers, nor does he heap any main ideas or themes on the life of the man he so meticulously sets out to describe. The closest one may come to discovering a theme in the book is the inevitable conclusion reached by the end: John Adams was a very important, very influential patriot. And the experience up until that conclusion is one of the most memorable readings ever offered by a book.

John Adams is, as a review quote says on the cover, “A masterwork of storytelling.” If McCullough has a point of view, it is not the sort that would refer to an opinion, but rather the perspective of a storyteller. He is a narrator, who masterfully goes about describing the life story of an important figure in our nation’s history down to every minute detail possible. He sets forth the facts of events that actually took place. It is clearly his intent from the start to allow readers to make conclusions about the character of Adams for themselves, though I doubt anyone will fail to conclude that he was a great man of integrity (with noteworthy vices) based on what is written. That does not mean, however, that he is biased, merely because reading the book will raise your opinion of Adams (and lower your opinion of Thomas Jefferson). The biography itself is so saturated with quotes from diaries, letter correspondence, speeches, notes, and journals that anyone would have a great deal of difficulty in calling it slanted. When there is a dispute or a clash of ideologies between the ‘characters’, each and every point of view is carefully dissected. This means that in forming one’s opinion of John Adams, that opinion will be based on one’s agreement or disagreement with what he stood for, not on the bias or opinion of the author. This is the sign of a masterpiece biography & historical account.

David McCullough’s purpose was to tell the life of John Adams, in all its glory but also in its less glamorous moments. He does not want to tell the reader what to think about Adams, but instead would rather tell his life story and leave them to form an opinion. Therefore his overall objective was to reveal as much about John Adams as can be known. One of the many things I loved about his style while I read the book was that he wasn’t telling, or asking, or suggesting that I believe something. He apparently realized that as a biographer, the reach of his writing should be constrained only to telling the facts, and that an ideologically-laden treatise about the merits of John Adams’ political philosophies ought to be left out of a historical account. I have no doubt that it was this objectivity, and this careful focus on simply telling readers what happened, that won him the Pulitzer Prize for the book.

John Adams was, as any man is, influenced by the world he lived in. And McCullough seems to realize this. In addition to describing the man himself, McCullough thoroughly explains every political event, social movement, religious tradition, family member, friend, and associate that made John Adams think the way he did. Specifically, I learned how savage the political scene could be, then as now. The ferocity with which some attacked John Adams as a president, for example, in many cases matches the insults we hear continually hurled against President Bush (however I don’t believe Bush will ever rise to the level of prominence that Adams did). He was stabbed in the back by various politicians and previous friends (to name two, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson). He was denounced violently in newspapers throughout the country. But in spite of this, posterity records him as one of the greatest founding fathers.

Another fact that I came to understand, which is the inevitable conclusion of seeing these people’s writing, was that educated persons in the 18th century, were very well-educated. The wit and intelligence with which our founding fathers (and especially Adams) wrote and spoke is astounding, far beyond what we would consider ‘educated’ today. This is a smaller, less important conclusion overshadowed by the purpose of the book (to tell about John Adams), but it was something that I noticed from the start.

Finally, reading this book, I came to a better understanding of how profoundly and prominently religion figured into the lives of these people, that they (or the vast majority of them) intended to establish a nation free by Christian standards—free to be self-governing, and free to worship God as one pleases. As Adams wrote in a letter, “It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever.” For two Christian nations (England and America) to break apart, they felt it necessary to do so in a way that would surely have the approval of God.

Ultimately, however, the main conclusion drawn from reading this book is that the American cause stands (or at least originally stood) among the most noble undertakings in the history of the world. That our American Experiment is a just and good attempt at ensuring that the beauty and value of every individual is realized and held in a sacred place. And that, as posterity records, John Adams was one of the many great men at the wheel. David McCullough has succeeded brilliantly in capturing this, and I must strongly recommend this book not just to any history buff, but to any American.

-ecthelion-