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Title: John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life by Paul C. Nagel ISBN: 0-674-47940-8 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (34 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Well written, enjoyable, not comprehensive
Comment: I just completed this book a couple of days ago. I found it to be extremely well-written and informative. It certainly did not sugar-coat JQA. In some places, it pictured him as amazingly insensitive and impolitical. I was disappointed with how little space was devoted to his presidency. If your interest in JQA lies in his presidency, do yourself a favor and skip this book. If you want to get to know him as a person--complete with warts and inconsistencies--then you will love this book. JQA's pre- and post-presidency careers were much more distinguished than his presidential career, and those were the author's focus. This book also offers a COMPLETELY opposite (i.e., harsh) view of Abigail Adams than McCullough's almost worshipful picture of her in "John Adams." This book is a much easier and pleasant read than Ketcham's bio of Madison or Ammon's bio of Monroe. The writing is more in the McCullough or Joseph Ellis class and style.
Rating: 5
Summary: ARGUABLY THE GREATEST ADAMS
Comment: With the success of David McCullough's recent biography, John Adams, and with the intriguing story I discovered in the movie Amistad, I looked to find a good biography of John Adams' oldest son, John Quincy. I found the perfect match in John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life by Paul C. Nagel.
Nagel's portrait aptly introduces the reader to one of America's greatest presidents and, arguably, the greatest and most accomplished member of the renowned Adams family of New England. Like all great biographies, Nagel's work takes the good with the bad and provides a front on look at the sixth president.
While John Quincy's shortcomings are clearly delineated, his strengths, long forgotten in history, come through vividly. I found myself wondering how America might have forgotten one of its very strongest leaders. But then I realized that one of John Quincy Adams' greatest strengths was his aversion to the political shenanigans that continue began in his day and continue to this day. We don't want to remember someone who served as well and with so little scandal. No, a scene including interns frolicking near the Oval Office with an incumbent president is more our strong suit.
If, however, you want to discover how a person can serve for over sixty years with strength and honor you won't be disappointed with Nagel's John Quincy Adams. You'll also want to view Steven Spielberg's Amistad while you're at it.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Well Balanced Account of A Difficult Man
Comment: I can't decide if this book is as good at David McCullough's biography of John Adams (a five-star book for sure), but if not, it is very, very close. Drawing on John Quincy Adams' diaries, Paul Nagel has written a very readable account of a not so likable man and does such a thorough job of showing every side of the man that I came away feeling respect, admiration and sympathy for JQA.
One of the surprises to me in this account of the eminent Adams family is that Abigail Adams was overbearing with her children and possibly did not command the affection of her eldest son, JQA. (Maybe I'm thick, but I didn't get an inkling of this in the McCullough biography of JQA's father.) What may not be quite so surprising is that JQA had little respect for woman in general, apart from their role as mothers and housekeepers. Nagel makes the observation that JQA's wife Louisa, who was apparently literate and intelligent, would have surpassed her husband in ability had she been provided a similar education. A book about their relationship and the social mores that kept them together would be fascinating!
The story of JQA's life might be described as replete with conflicts. His struggle between a scholarly career vs. a political career is well documented and ongoing until the last years of his life. Obviously, he finally came to realize that he needed the political forum since he spent the last 17 years in the House of Representatives, the only former president to do so. His four years as president were probably the most miserable of his life, but he wanted to be re-elected. He constantly berated himself for indolence while generating more work than several people put together.
He was quite a character, habitually swimming in the Potomac River (almost drowning while he was president)and walking several miles a day, timing himself while doing so. In his seventies and suffering from a malady that produced ugly boils on his bald head, he appeared at dinner parties wearing a turban. And he absolutely loved to antagonize his fellow congressmen by taking the floor of the House of Representatives.
What's sad about JQA is that he was not satisfied with what he accomplished. It seems that even more than his father, he resented not have a "proper place in history". He wanted to be another Caesar, but realized that he was not endowed by nature with sufficient abilities. Given everything that he had accomplished as foreign diplomat, college professor, Secretary of State, President and, finally, Congressman (to say nothing of being a devoted family man), it's really too bad he couldn't relax and enjoy himself more.
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Title: James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity by Harry Ammon ISBN: 0813912660 Publisher: University of Virginia Press Pub. Date: March, 1990 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini ISBN: 0060937351 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner ISBN: 0316286168 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 22 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Louis Ketcham ISBN: 0813912652 Publisher: University of Virginia Press Pub. Date: May, 1990 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis ISBN: 0679764410 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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