Why "John Adams" Is the Book to Read After America's 250th

We just celebrated America's 250th birthday this past July. If you're like me, it got you thinking about the history behind it — the real story, not the statue version. I read a lot of history books, but very few make me set the book down and just sit there thinking. David McCullough's John Adams did that to me. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can't recommend it enough.

The surprising thing is how little most of us know about the man. John Adams was the second president, sure, but before that he was one of the hardest-working people in the room where it all happened. He argued for independence on the floor of Congress when it was still a dangerous thing to say out loud. He nominated George Washington to command the Continental Army. He went to Europe and talked the Dutch into recognizing the new country and loaning it money — without those loans, the Revolution might have run out of money before it ran out of fight.

Here's the part I loved most: in 1770, after the Boston Massacre, Adams defended the British soldiers who had fired into the crowd. He was a patriot through and through, but he believed every person deserved a defense. That's who he was — stubborn, principled, and not afraid to be unpopular.

He served as vice president under Washington, then president himself from 1797 to 1801. His presidency was rough. France was seizing American ships, the country was screaming for war, and Adams held the line. He kept us out of a full-scale war with France — and it split his own party and cost him re-election in 1800. He did the right thing and paid the price for it. There's something about that I can't stop thinking about.

And then there's Abigail. John and Abigail Adams wrote each other more than 1,100 letters over forty years — while he was in Philadelphia, in Paris, in Amsterdam, anywhere but home. She ran the farm, raised the family, and gave him political advice that was often sharper than what he got in Congress. She once told him to "remember the ladies" when he was writing the laws of the new country. He didn't forget her. He couldn't — she was half of everything he was.

McCullough's book came out in 2001, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and became the basis for the HBO miniseries with Paul Giamatti. But what makes it worth your time isn't the awards. It's that McCullough writes about Adams the way you'd want someone to write about a person — flaws, temper, doubts, and all. This country was built by real people making difficult choices with incomplete information. John Adams is the proof.

So if the 250th anniversary got you curious, start here. Read it on the porch, read it before bed, however you like to read. You'll come away knowing the founding a whole lot better — and you'll come away thinking John Adams doesn't get nearly enough credit.

If you want to pick up a copy, here's where I got mine: https://amzn.to/4eeFg4n (full disclosure — it's an affiliate link, and it helps keep this site running).

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.