John Adams

"America's second president, John Adams, was the political leader who had to face democratic politics as we know it today, whereas his predecessor, George Washington, enjoyed an unchallenged charismatic authority as the glorious hero of the Revolution. But what Washington won on the battlefield as a general Adams won at the conference table as a diplomat: a vital loan that helped finance the Revolution and the favorable peace terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1783. As president, Adams dealt with international relations, civil liberties, and domestic rebellion with a keen sense of power, fairness, and justice. He had a better grasp of where America was heading than did Thomas Jefferson, and had it not been for the political institutions Adams defended—a strong executive, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the military—America's democratic ideals would have had no means of realization. This is Adams's legacy."—John Patrick Diggins on John Adams

"[Diggins] spends time considering Adams in the light of political alter ego Thomas Jefferson, who lived as an aristocrat while speaking as a radical, yet unfairly accused his sober-minded, eminently democratic opponent of being Caesar in the making . . . [This] solid interpretation of events will interest students of the presidency and the early republic."—Kirkus Reviews

"In this study, part of the accessible series [from Times Books] on each of the country's chief executives, historian Diggins' academic specialty, intellectual history, influences his appraisal of Adams. The President wrote copiously about political philosophy, and in one chapter, Diggins closely evaluates the material. This is a wise confinement, for, except for his correspondence, Adams is a chore to read. The pace quickens in the balance of Diggins' narrative as he integrates Adams' fundamental ideas about politics into the hurly-burly story of the 1790s. Adams' presidency was, of course, vexed by the quasi-war with revolutionary France and associated turbulence in domestic politics. As much as recounting events, Diggins engages historians of this much-written-about decade, detecting pro-Jefferson bias in some, as he argues for Adams' significance as a political moralist. This examination will be of special interest to history readers with an analytical bent."—Booklist

"More than just a miniature of our second president, Diggins's slim volume offers a reconsideration of Adams, a thoughtful study of American politics of the period and Adams's legacy for today."—Publishers Weekly