And coverage of the presidential campaign of 1824 – which carried Adams to the White House – is riveting.īut while Traub successfully penetrates his subject’s opaque exterior, nowhere is a full portrait of JQA laid bare for easy digestion. Adams.Īmong the biography’s many virtues are its introduction (where every word seems exquisitely chosen for maximum impact), its introduction of John and Abigail Adams (who seem so interesting the reader may be tempted to set this book aside to read about JQA’s parents), its observations concerning the evolution of early American politics and political parties, and its consistently nuanced consideration of John Quincy Adams’s attitude toward slavery. Traub proves both an attentive observer and a discriminating analyst during the book’s thirty-nine chapters he manages to discern, decipher and articulately describe the dour but brilliant Mr. The author clearly admires his subject and he takes advantage of Adams’s intrinsically fascinating life to write an excellent biography comprised of nearly equal parts history and character study. And while it does not quite rank among the most colorful or poetic of the presidential biographies I’ve read, it is not far off the mark. Traub’s writing is refreshingly straightforward with just enough erudition and depth to appeal to scholars – but without discouraging a wider audience. Most readers will find this widely admired 537-page biography well-organized, engaging and uncommonly thoughtful. He is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at New York University. Traub is a journalist and author who has written for The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, The New York Post and Saturday Review. James Traub’s “ John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit” was published in 2016, about three years after I read four other biographies of the sixth president.
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