Doubleday
636 Pages
I debated for some time whether to do each of the volumes of John Adams by Page Smith together or separately. After reading both, however, I decided that I would do them as individual books as I definitely preferred one over the other. Together, they constitute the first major biography written about our second president, first published back in 1962. Until David McCullough’s masterpiece written in 2001, it was considered the most authoritative work on John Adams.
I have found that some of the early biographies of the presidents (Flexner’s multi-volume work on Washington, for example) seem to be written in an archaic and academic style, not always conducive to the casual reader. These books take some concentration to get used to. That could be why I found the second volume of this series to be more enjoyable and informational - I had simply gotten used to Smith’s writing style.
This first volume details Adams’ life from his birth until 1784, when his wife, Abigail, and his daughter, Nabby, joined him in Europe. Adams was a prolific writer and diarist, which gives the author a great deal of research from which to draw. Smith began his research with the release of the personal papers of John Adams in 1961. This author was able to be the first to tackle the immense project and shed some light on the often overlooked president.
In the early days, Adams was a simple man who wanted to be a farmer against the wishes of his father. For a man of his times, he was greatly educated, studying at Harvard, becoming a lawyer, and eventually, much more. This first volume explores his youthful days, the drive to become a greater man, and the events that led to his separation from the king of England. Smith explores the loyalty Adams had for the truth, even when it wasn’t expedient for him to do so. He defended the soldiers of the Boston Massacre even though his thoughts were already leaning towards a breakup with the monarchy. Smith takes the readers into the days of pre-Revolution Massachusetts to give them just the slightest idea of the sentiment among the citizens of colonial America.
In this early book, Smith had a tendency to be quite superfluous in his narrative. His admiration of John Adams shines through at the very beginning of this first volume. In some places, it was overwhelming. However, once the initial hero worship is out of the way, the details that made the man begin to come to light. Smith’s flowery language never truly goes away, in either volume, but it is drastically limited as the books go on.
This book is a little different than Ferling’s book, as Smith gives Adams a lot of latitude for some of his more unpopular opinions and actions. Smith is somewhat dismissive of the actions that Adams took in Paris with Benjamin Franklin, among others. In this first volume, he does, however, use Adams’ prevailing Puritan ideals to set the stage for the subsequent interactions and developments that Adams is faced with.
Of the two volumes, this first one was not as well received by me. Although Smith does a more than adequate job at setting the stage and exploring the youth of John Adams, it tends to be a bit on the dry side. That is not unusual in most of these earlier academic works. However, this one takes a while to gather some steam and push its way out of the doldrums of dryness. Page Smith gives us what we’re looking for, but in many instances, he takes too long to get there and spends too much time adding more roses to the garden.
John Adams Volume 1 by Page Smith is an essential piece of any reading project for presidential biographies. As you will see in the next review, Smith follows up the early years with a far better (in my opinion) detailing of John Adams’ later life. This one will take some time to get through, especially at the beginning, but it is a book you should read.
Craig Bacon has a new passion for reading about our presidents. He has been reading a lot to catch up on the original focus of his Presidential Reading Project.
NEXT UP: John Adams Volume 2 by Page Smith