 "Five Stars" | 2008-05-05 |
| - Reviewed By ramie245 |
| A great biography on John Quincy Adams. The author thoroughly went through everything from childhood to death. He was able to describe him very well. I liked hearing about his various government jobs and living in Europe. I only have a minor nitpick the author should have sticked with refering to him as JQA instead of rotating from JQA, John and Adams given his famous father it would have been better to stick with just JQA. Other that it was a great biography. |
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| "A Fine Biography of a Great American" | 2008-03-23 |
| - Reviewed By nicejeff |
A fine biography about America's most important second generation citizen. Nagel manages the tricky balancing act of covering the relevant topic without overstaying his welcome with everything and the kitchen sink. Nagel also earns due credit for resisting, for the most part, the urge to apply today's psychological interpretations to the mind and motives of a man who lived two hundred years ago. Discussion is important but speculation is just that. It also helps Nagel's cause that JQA led a pretty uncontroversial life.
A great legislator and a (by his own admission) below average President, JQA proved his mettle as a Secretary of State and congressman. The only President to return to congress, he fought vehemently for abolition and civil liberties. He even died on the job. How's that for service to the nation.
If the personal aspect of the biography seems underwhelming, perhaps that is due to the subject's relative colorlessness. A staid, serious individual who may have even suffered from mild depression, JQA lived his entire life as his father's son. Hard to live up to a man revered around the world as a living or recently deceased god. JQA lived a very quiet, serious life for a public figure. |
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| "Enjoyable and Informative" | 2007-12-05 |
| - Reviewed By clay24 |
I'm nearly at the halfway point of my mission to read a biography of each President. I would put this bio in the top third of those I've read for a variety of reasons.
First, it was the perfect length. JQA was an important President but was he TJ, Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, Lincoln... no. Nothing that important happened when he was President at least in a very broad, international sense. I'm very glad the author didn't lengthen the biography and make it detailed to a fault just to make it look like he did more research or overvalued the importance of JQA.
JQA was quite a character. Clearly he was an intelligent man. I loved the way the author talked about what JQA read. In fact, I might even read some of those books myself because as with nearly every President, they gathered most of their intelligence from reading on their own. I liked the fact that the author included all the info about JQA's literary, research and professorship.
I didn't get the point of how the author pointed out JQA's schedule so often, when he got up, what he did all day, that got a bit old.
Other than that, it was really a great biography that shed a lot of light on this man.
A few things I found interesting about JQA that the author did a good job detailing.
1. Abigail and John Adams really put a lot of pressure on their son. That was very apparent and made JQA a sympathetic person at times.
2. JQA was a stick in the mud a lot of times so it is easy to see why a lot of people didn't like him. It also explains why his presidency isn't held in such high regard. I thought it very telling that on Andrew Jackson's deathbed JQA was very uncomplementary. I would've hated to cross him.
3. And perhaps this is the most interesting. JQA couldn't rise above the pressure that was put on him by his parents. He passed that pressure on to his kids, causing one to kill himself. Of course, I do think he mellowed as he got older which the author detailed allowing him to become a sympathetic figure again.
Lastly, how about the fact that JQA died pretty much in congress. Wow, what dedication.
Good bio that I would recommend. |
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 "THE LIFE OF THE PARTY" | 2007-10-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1MX6D3JK6IKDW |
| It was obvious from tne start that John Quincy Adams was going to be a great man,like it or not. His father,John, second in his class at Harvard, immediately began bombarding the youth with Greek, Latin, English and history. His mother, Abigail Smith of Mayflower descent, simultaneously joined the festivities, instilling a religious morality that might have frightened Calvin himself.Trips abroad with Quincy's father were to be educative,with little time to be "wasted".Little wonder that J.Q. would also graduate second in his Harvard stint. The real surprise to this reviewer is that the future 6th president ever married since he seemingly knew nothing about intimacy, only work and duty.His beratings and impudence towards his wife are carefully preserved, perhaps sadly. Certainly no family wrote or retained more for future historians.That he was a competent diplomat, an historic Secretary of State under Monroe, and a highly respected Representative for Massachusetts until his death in 1848 (stricken on the floor of The House) is almost completely forgotten.It's simply that his presidency was a complete bust,due mostly to the infamous alleged "corrupt deal" with Henry Clay in the election of 1824. No president was better trained for the office, few presidents were treated more callously by Congress.(Which came first,the chicken or the egg)? Paul Nagel writes an anecdotal, not too heavy biography of a difficult man. The results are generally favorable to the reader, even if the subject himself tends not to be, Is there a psycho-historian in the house? |
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 "An inexcusably poor biography" | 2007-08-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A19JH6VPUN3A4R |
After noting the ratings and browsing the titles of other reviewers, I realize I am in the minority in the low review I have given this book. I find it even more peculiar given my disposition to normally be quite favorable in my reviews. I will not flinch, however, in my belief that this biography is ill conceived, inadequately researched, and poorly written.
First, I will tackle why this book is ill conceived. Nagel makes the assertion that he will be able to add knew insight into the inner workings of John Quincy Adams, a task he points out that no previous biographer has been fully successful, by writing a biography utilizing JQA's diary. This certainly seems like an acceptable approach but in practice Nagel simply uses it as an excuse to write a biography without doing any real research. In fact, you will not find a single footnote in this entire volume, simply an explanation basically telling you that his primary research was JQA's diary with the gaps filled in by other biographers work. Even more inexplicable, beyond a couple of lines of poetry, Nagel never quotes directly from JQAs diary except for short sentences or phrases trapped within his mechanical prose. The dumbfounding outcome of this is a book that purports to tell JQAs story utilizing his diary, yet never gives the reader any sense of what JQAs diary was actually like.
The preceding criticism might be overlooked had Nagel actually written an enjoyable biography. Unfortunately, Nagel's writing is as lazy and thoughtless as his research. Nagel makes no effort to craft his work in a way that would be appropriate to his subject matter or complement his desire to use JQAs diary as the basis for the book. I would encourage anyone thinking of buying this book to read the excerpts available through the "Look Inside" feature. Nagel continues the exact same paragraph structure throughout the entire book. The book is strictly chronological, basically following a "then this happened, then this happened, and then this happened..." approach that is about as compelling as a high school level history assignment. Nagel treats events big and small with the same level of detail (not much) and never elaborates on events that seem to provide an opportunity for adding interest or bringing the reader to a better understanding of John Quincy Adams and his place in history. I would call this a "feather duster" biography - it glides along the surface without ever taking the time to go into any depth.
Those interested in learning about JQAs presidency will be the most disappointed. Nagel explains that he only devotes a chapter to JQAs presidency because JQA himself did not think his presidency was very important. This is an absurd defense and a smokescreen for the fact that he did not do the necessary research. In fact, the chapter devoted to JQAs presidency is mostly about events that happened to JQA during his presidency unrelated to his presidency.
In conclusion, I will call this book exactly what it is - an abridgement and paraphrased version of JQAs diary and a very poor one at that. I am still perplexed at how so many others found this book satisfactory, but I found it to be the worst biography that I have ever read.
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| "Very readable and entertaining" | 2007-01-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3DQ04TVLOGE4Q |
On the one hand this is a well written and highly readable book. It does a much better job of focusing on the personal life of JQA than most biographies of people from this era. It gave a different perspective on Abigail Adams than I've seen other places and it also does not take his assertion of not seeking public office at face value, which so many other biographies do.
The stated purpose of the author is to explore JQA as a person, and he succeeds. But the glossing over of the events of the day is quite glaring in a few cases. For example, I think JQA's role in the genesis of the Monroe Doctrine gets only 2 pages. And he really didn't explore the "corrupt bargain" around the election of 1824. He explores some of the the facts around the election but, not it's impact on the American public and role in the rise of Jacksonian Democracy. |
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| "A Private Life - YES! ... A Public Life - Sort of?" | 2006-11-05 |
| - Reviewed By minnstars |
| This books primary source is John Quincy Adams (JQA) remarkable diary, which spans a period of over 60 years, for the 1780's to the 1840's. Thanks to this source, the author delivers on his promise to describe the private life of JQA. I think the author is less successful at giving the reader an understanding of JQA's public life. The book contains a very detailed account of the life style, personality, character, and intellectual pass times of Adams, but it fails to put his life in historical context, at least from a "BIG Picture" perspective. I believe this is what the author intended, so it is really up to the reader to decide if this is the type of biography they wish to read. As a meticulous study of the inner workings of a man who was at the center of American politics from it's founding to the period just before the civil war the book is well worth reading. But if you are like me, you will be left wanting to read more. |
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 "Perhaps this was one biography too many for the author" | 2006-10-10 |
| - Reviewed By batttman |
| The biography of this fascinating man lets the reader down. Based entirely on secondary sources (primarily JQA's Diary), we miss the flavor of events he lived through, such as the War of 1812, the Jacksonian revolution, the Free Soil movement, the Nativist Movement, the Know Nothings, the Loco Focos, the Wilmot Proviso, the breakup of the Whigs, and his enemies' epithet for him, Prince Hal. But there's plenty of interest in the book without that. Adams was a proud man, a devout New Englander, bitter about personal attacks, full of self-doubt, wanting to leave a legacy of public service; in his teens he spent eight years overseas assisting his father as a diplomat in Paris, London, Prussia, and Katherine the Great's Russia. It's interesting that his son, Charles Francis Adams, took JQA's young grandson, Henry Adams, along with him to represent the Union government in London during the Civil War. The author fails to probe ex-President Adams's relationships with Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Van Buren, and the other political luminaries of his day. We do learn, however, of enormous time and energy poured into research about arcane topics, and poetry writing. People were hardy in those days. In his 70s, JQA could walk eight miles in three hours, swim, fish, and deliver orations lasting up to three hours. No channel surfing in those days! Three stars for a good try. |
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| "Excellent Old-Fashioned Biography" | 2006-10-03 |
| - Reviewed By sidereusnuntius |
| Well researched and coherently written, this biography will reward those readers who have historical knowledge of the 1780-1840 era and who already find John Quincy Adams an interesting figure. Others are forewarned that Adams's "public life" has to be understood within a framework of political history which the author assumes to be general knowledge. In fact, the emphasis of this biography is on JQA's "private life" and character. With that caveat, I can heartily recommend the book. Adams was one of the few first-rate humans ever to serve as President of the USA, even if his tenure in the White House was probably the least productive period of his long life. His role in diplomatic history - he was Monroe's Secretary of State - was huge. More impressive, his return to the House of Representatives after his presidency initiated an heroic struggle to purify American democracy from the curse of Slave State dominance (an unfinished struggle, alas!) That struggle is more amply and eloquently portrayed in "Arguing About Slavery" by William Lee Miller, which I might recommend reading first. |
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| "Interesting Biography" | 2006-06-29 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3KUCVXCWCIGQA |
| I have been reading the biographies of all the Presidents in sequence and found this author to be more than adequate in his research and information about John Quincy Adams. The fact that he abbreviated as JQA throughout the book did not bother me, and in fact would have annoyed me if he had repeated the long name over and over. I did find the author to be a bit harsh in his portrayal of Abigal Adams. I have read other books about this famous wife of one President/mother of another President and I was surprised at some of her letters to her son, but did not think they were all mean-spirited and controlling as the author indicated. Frankly, I grew tired of the Abigail-bashing. I also thought the author was quite repetitive in regards to JQA's weaker traits and bad habits. I understand emphasizing these weaknesses as they related to important events or life-changing decisions, but I felt the repetition was excessive. At times that aspect was driven home to the extreme and bored me. Otherwise, this book imparted aspects of JQA's life that were absolutely fascinating, and I compliment the author on his devotion to the personal life of JQA and not just the political. This is a complete assessment of this man, this President. His pre- and post-Presidential years were also well-covered. I liked the book. |
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