John Quincy Adams

"A dedicated expansionist and defender of human rights, John Quincy Adams was the first President to advance a wide-ranging program of national development by which the United States could ultimately achieve world power and increase the happiness and prosperity of the American people. It is the responsibility of government, he insisted, to improve the conditions of life for those who are subject to its authority; otherwise government can never accomplish its lawful ends. This bold assertion of what the government could and should do always fascinated me, particularly when so many citizens at the time feared a strong, activist government. Although his presidency failed to fulfill his hopes and goals, he set a standard by which all succeeding administrations can be and, I think, should be judged."—Robert V. Remini on John Quincy Adams

"Capable and thoughtful . . . Does Adams justice and well serves to acquaint readers with a neglected leader."—Kirkus Reviews

"The latest gem in Holt's American Presidents series is written by a widely acclaimed specialist in early-nineteenth-century American history and the author of such well-received biographies as Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union. His judicious, eloquent survey of the sixth president's life and career intends not to proffer new and explosive ideas but to fashion recent scholarship into a highly readable overview for the general reader. John Quincy was the son, of course, of the second president, and he benefited from his father's political and diplomatic career, which exposed him to the wider world beyond his native Massachusetts. (But John Quincy could never live up to the unrealistic standards imposed by his controlling mother, Abigail.) Mature for his age, young John Quincy entered into the diplomatic corps, and eventually President Monroe appointed him secretary of state, the greatest figure to occupy that office, so Remini avers. As president, though, John Quincy was a disaster. He was unable to develop political adroitness, always 'exud[ing] the air of a scholar, not a leader.' Nonetheless, Remini concludes that despite John Quincy's lack of success as president, 'everything else in his public life added distinction to [America's] illustrious history.'"—Brad Hooper, Booklist (starred review)

"Remini, the author of many books on Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and the politics of the 1820s and 1830s, here offers a brief biography of the sixth president of the United States as part of the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. John Quincy Adams's four-year presidency was the least satisfying period in a long public career. He served as diplomat and Secretary of State prior to his election and became the only former president to sit in the House of Representatives, where he remained for 17 years during the increasingly stormy sectional debate. Remini focuses on important incidents throughout Adams's life, demonstrating that he was not the failure he would have been if judged only by his presidential years . . . Though the book is brief, in keeping with the series, Remini still manages to stay true to his scholarly credentials . . . Some endnotes are included that do not interrupt the flow of each chapter. Recommended."—Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Library Journal

"John and Abigail Adams's son was arguably the most brilliant man ever to occupy the White House. He was also probably the least temperamentally fit to do so. Nevertheless, as this straightforward biography reminds us, John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) led one of the longest, most illustrious and most consequential public careers in the nation's history . . . In this addition to a series on the presidents edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Remini, a National Book Award winner, paints an admiring portrait of an extraordinary man. The author concentrates on Adams's 50-year public career, much of it spent abroad. Remini is surely justified in holding Adams out as the nation's greatest secretary of state, largely responsible for what we know as the Monroe Doctrine. Although Adams as president was out of touch with most of his fellow citizens, it's likely that no one could have succeeded in the White House given the political confusion of those years. Adams's post-White House years (he was one of only two ex-presidents to return to Congress) yielded some of his life's greatest triumphs. He laid the basis for the Free Soil movement that eventually helped defeat slavery, protected the bequest that gave us the Smithsonian Institution and, as many readers will know from the film, defended the Amistad slaves. No one who reads this fine, short study will fail to place Adams in the pantheon of Great Neglected Americans which is just what Remini hopes to achieve and does."—Publishers Weekly