John Adams

great, book, and I loved the narration. Only qualm is I ended up buying full version, as there are huge gaps, which I you really want to understand the Adams-jefferson relationship, full length version is much better.

Listening to this book is the best encouragement to make an impulse buy from time to time. At a book store or library, I would normally avoid a biography on John Adams. But, given the ability to listen to this book, I impulsively downloaded it....and, I'm very happy I did! I was reminded of American history I had long since forgotten, and learned new and fascinating facts. The author does a wonderful job of keeping the reader/listener's ears glued to his MP3 player. I never realized how great a man John Adams was, and what a colorful life he led.

It's a long book, but it kept my interest to the last sentence.

McCullough is a wonderful biographer/historian. Two of his previous books on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal were people-oriented histories; this is a history-oriented biography. It uses correspondence involving Adams, his wife Abigail, and several contemporaries who played a part in Adams's life to excellent effect. Both Adams and his wife were enthusiastic and thoughtful correspondents throughout their adult lives and McCullough knows how to mine this source to great effect.

The book handles all of the significant controversies in Adams's public and private life, and to this non-historian, does so quite even-handedly given that the biographer seems to truly like his subject. We are shown Adams's faults, but they are overwhelmed by his many virtues; his real self shines through the often-slanderous verbal fog created by his many enemies. In today's scholarship it sometimes appears that you have to be either for Adams or for Jefferson, but McCullough admires both and refuses to be drawn into that feckless enterprise.

It is a long book, but it could have been much longer and still held my rapt attention.

I listened to this book on a recommendation from a friend who read the book. I throughly enjoyed the writing style of David McCullough and his descriptions of our early history. I not only learned much about our history but also listened to the story like a novel. A must-read for anyone interested in the birth of the United States or anyone who likes a good novel.

Before this I had never read a historical biography, but was drawn to the title by other's comments and the independence-related subject matter. Having now finished listening to the work, I can say that the author brings this individual and his time wonderfully to life and I would heartily recommend it to anyone with an interest in the man or the period.

As one other reviewer comments, this IS the abridged version, though I am sure that when I bought it there was no unabridged version available. I do marvel at the length of the full version when I reflect back upon how complete this version sounded. I would recommend this abridged version, especially as you have to use two credits for the two volumes of the other version.

I liked the narration, apart from (and this is my sole gripe) the random generic female narrator's voice who replaces the normal male narrator at nonesensical intervals. Still, she is thankfully soon off the scene again and definitely in the minority versus her male counterpart. Nonetheless, this is certainly no reason NOT to recommend the book, it is just good to know...

More or less my entire knowledge of the revolutionary war and American history following it comes from this volume, since I am English and there is so much of our history that we unfortunately do not really get around to dealing with this episode in school. Bearing this in mind, I found the book to be an excellent resource for my purposes. Also, I have an American girlfriend, so I thought it was about time I was elevated from 'clueless' on the subject!!

To sum up - BUY IT. You won't regret it...

David McCullough does a tremendous job in bringing back to life such a wonderful individual who would later become the President of the United States. John Adams was much more of a pivotal figure in the founding of our great country than I have ever imagined. I particulary liked how the author delved into Adam's personal life, thoughts, letters, and relationships. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish and if anyone has the smallest of interest in history, you will certainly enjoy this book. I highly recommend it.

The nearly universal praise for David McCullough's book is very well deserved. Adams was an amazing gentleman and we owe so much to him for his service to our country. Listening to this excellently narrated (abridged) audiobook made me long to know more about our 2nd president and his remarkable wife and family. So much so that I went out and bought the book to read it unabridged. I especially enjoyed the extensive quotes from personal correspondence in the story line. It gave wonderful insight to who these people really were and what they thought about our country, each other and life. If you haven't gotten around to hearing this one yet, do not hesitate to hear it!

I think what I liked best about this book is that it gives an overview of the history of the events that took place during John Adams life in addition to his biography. It doesn't take the approach of being overly biased towards John Adams like a lot of biographies do for their subjects. It seems to be backed by a lot of research and includes fascinating information and almost mini-biographies of others in that time period as well, especially Thomas Jefferson. Although it took a long time to listen to, I never became bored with it and always looked forward to listening to it. I'd recommend it to most anyone.

I really enjoyed this book. I listened only to the abridged version just in case, but found myself wishing there was more. I may go back for the unabridged version at another time.
I find myself seeing John Adams in a whole new light now. Since the only real knowledge I had of him was from history books in high school, I thought of him as a stuffy old blow hard. I found that he was a real human being. He had a great love of both his country and his family. The book portrayed him as a caring husband and father, which I now would like to believe he was. His wife, Abigail, was a smart woman with her own opinions and points of view. She was knowledgable in many areas and was treated as an equal by Adams.
I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to know more about our history. I would also say, forget about those stuffy history books. This surely isn't one of them. I found it interesting and entertaining. And although this was the first biography I've ever read (or listened to) I don't think it will be the last.

Adams, his wife, children, and acquaintances wrote profusely giving a huge record to draw from. It is astounding how many sources McCullough, to create this work, pulls together.

The book also gives an insiders view at the negotiations of freedom and how close we came to losing it, even after barely winning the war. Adams, a very moral man, allows us another view of Jefferson, Franklin and others that proves to be very interesting.