John Adams: Party of One

by James Grant

An acute examination of a paradoxical U.S. president.

John Adams was an undiplomatic diplomat and an impolitic politician--a fierce revolutionary yet a detached and reluctant leader of the nation he helped to found. Few American public figures have ever been more devoted to doing the right thing, or more contemptuous of doing the merely popular thing. Yet his Yankee-bred fixation with ethical propriety and fiscal conservatism never stood in the way of his doing what was necessary. Adams hated debt, but as minister to the Netherlands during the Revolution, he was America's premier junk-bond salesman. And though raised a traditional Massachusetts Congregationalist, Adams was instrumental in bringing about the consecration of the first American Episcopal bishops. He was a warm and magnanimous friend and, on occasion, a man who fully vindicated the famous judgment of a rival he detested. Adams, said Benjamin Franklin, "means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but, sometimes, and in some things, is absolutely out of his senses."

James Grant examines this complex and often contradictory founding father in the most well-rounded and multi-faceted portrait of Adams to date. Going from his beginnings on a hardscrabble Massachusetts farm to the Continental Congress to the Court of St. James and the White House, Grant traces the words and deeds of one of our most learned but politically star-crossed leaders.

Genres: Biography, History, Presidents, Nonfiction, American History, American Revolution, Politics

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads.

James Grant, financial journalist and historian, is the founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the investment markets. His book, The Forgotten Depression, 1921: the Crash that Cured Itself, a history of America’s last governmentally unmedicated business-cycle downturn, won the 2015 Hayek Prize of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Among his other books on finance and financial history are Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (Simon & Schuster, 1983), Money of the Mind (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992), Minding Mr. Market (Farrar, Straus, 1993), The Trouble with Prosperity (Times Books, 1996), and Mr. Market Miscalculates (Axios Press, 2008).

Reviews

[J.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a few books about John Adams. I read David McCullough's excellent and lengthy tome. I read Joseph Ellis' study of his character as well as his book about his marriage. Plus, Adams comes up extensively in anything about George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton or even the founding of the U. S. Navy. And of course Adams was central to the Revolutionary War. What more can be said about the man? Well, I guess that depends on who's writing and how long it's been since you've read those other books.

James Grant has written a very readable biography of John Adams, but with more of a focus on his beliefs, opinions, and politics. Although nominally he was head of the Federalist Party, he really was a man who stood by his principles and hated party politics. Whether dealing with the Continental Congress, the French, the Dutch, the English, the Federalists, the Republicans, or just plain Americans, he was always loyal to his country.

Published in 2005 in the shadow of McCullough's better-known history, this is almost a hidden gem of a biography. The book sat on my own shelves for about 15 years before I finally got around to it. But perhaps since it had been a while since I'd read most of the other books, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Although Grant appears to mainly write about finance, I thought his telling of history was very insightful. And I especially appreciated how significant Abigail Adams is to his telling of the story.

[Garrett Burnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

After David McCullough brought the second president into vogue with his wonderful John Adams, one might wonder what James Grant could contribute in Party of One. McCullough is a superb writer who has a knack for narrating history as a series of engaging stories. While Grant doesn't top him in this area, he's no slouch. He lacks McCullough's literary flair, but those who prefer a straight biography (without so much adoration for the subject) will likely be happier with Party of One.

Grant manages to do his work a few hundred pages faster than McCullough. He gives more emphasis to Adams' importance as a diplomat and--as he calls him--a junk bond trader. Grant gives rich, yet clear, descriptions of the loans Adams brokered and provides an understanding of how vital those loans were to the illiquid new nation. He examines Adams' writings and his political philosophies. He also discusses Adams' personal finance and points out how much a life of civil service cost a man who would have otherwise been quite wealthy.

Because of the areas they emphasize and their manner of doing so, Grant and McCullough provide complimentary portrayals of "His Rotundity." There's room enough for both of them.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a phenomenal book and from what I have read about John Adams the subtitle (Party of One), is the PERFECT DESCRIPTION of John Adams! He is often described as a Federalist but the reality is that he endeared himself to no one and created enemies from both parties of the day. He truly was the last President we had that did not involve himself in part politics - he simply knew what he believed and whatever side of the party lines that fell on, so be it. This is about the 4th or 5th book about him that I have read and must say it is my favorite - even better than David McCullough's book!

[Jdb · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars
I didn’t think it possible to screw up a bio of a founder so fascinating as John Adams. I was wrong. This is a disappointing mess.

The writing is choppy and often interrupted by short asides which distract. Context for events and actions is lacking leaving the reader confused. Chronology is ignored and much about Adams is missing.

To be fair, I have to ‘grant’ the author some partial redemption for the many quotes he shares in his book:

From Ben Franklin comes this classic-“ Adams was always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes he was wholly out of his mind.”

From the author is this: “By temperament, Adams was perfectly unsuited for his lifetime work. He was incapable of ingratiating himself with anyone. He would not flatter, hedge, trim, or indeed compromise.”

I recommend David McCullough or Page Smith for better bios on Adams.

To summarize my thoughts on this bio, I can think of no better way than to repeat William F. Buckley, Jr’s review of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’: “ I had to flog myself to finish the book”

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may be a disservice to publish this review, so thoroughly has David McCullough’s slightly earlier biography of Adams dominated the popular press. They need contrasting, if only to point out the power of celebrity-—McCullough’s—-in marketing of books.

That will have to wait.

For now, let it be said that Grant’s book is a masterpiece of both research and style, fully on par with Ron Chernow’s Hamilton and better than Chernow’s House of Morgan.

Like Chernow, Grant hangs his hat on financial history and, like Chernow, Grant leaves no original-source detail unexamined, weaving letters, diaries, and even Adams’s own hand-written book-margin notes into a compelling and vibrant tale of the building of a nation.

Along then way, the reader is rewarded with unexpected insight into the changing of times: the evolution of Puritanism into Congregationalism into Unitarianism (and concurrently so in Adams’s mind), and the financing of the new United States of America by a reluctant junk-bond salesman by the name of John Adams.

As is so often the case with these histories of America’s founders, we are reminded that these men were in agreement barely enough to set forth The Articles of Confederation and later a Constitution. The notion of harmonious, deeply-in-agreement “founding fathers” is a fiction fostered by the unread. For that alone Grant would have done us a service. To do it as skillfully as he has is a gift.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Grant provides a refreshing new analysis of John Adams that captures his role in the revolution accurately. Adams developed as his own party throughout the years following the revolution. This book can truly stand on its own and covers all the years of Adams life. From his law days in Boston, to the drafting of the Massachusetts constitution to his years as a diplomat in Europe the early years are well covered. The second half looks closer at his time in high political office from vice presidency to presidency to the retirement years. Overall it tracks closely the integral characters of his life. From Abigail to John Quincy to Alexander Hamilton the author develops each well and shows how they impacted John Adams. The one drawback is there are a lot of modern references which are not needed however they are not enough to knock a full star off. If you want a new perspective on John Adams this is a great way to go.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost as good the McCullough book, and different, focuses more on Adams later career and less on independence.

[Dennis Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

All in all this is a good book that I found very enjoyable. There is very little time spent on the Adams presidency or his twenty-five years of retirement but that can be found elsewhere. There probably should have been a little more attention paid to Adams' complicated relationship with Thomas Jefferson for that relationship reveals a great deal about both men. That too however, can be found elsewhere. The writing is clear and easy to read except that the author has a tendency to rely a little too much on quotes, especially early in the book. There is nothing wrong with quotes but many writers have a tendency to string too many of them close together and to use some that are far too long. This tends to cause the text to bog down and despite what some writers think, it contributes nothing to the reader's feel for the times. Still, this is a very readable, informative and truthful biography of John Adams and is a book that I am happy to add to my surroundings.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love John Adams - I was lucky to be able to tour his home Peacefield recently and so wanted to read another book on his life. This life to death biography was different than others I have read with a greater focus on religion and finances. I feel like I learned some new things and that is always a plus. With that said, the narrative was a bit awkward at times as it seemed like there were many asides, and in 450 pages of writing, his Presidency and end of life was covered in the last 75 which I thought was an odd choice. However, if you like Adams this will be a good addition to your reading list.

[Christopher Poe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some overly detailed information making it a challenging read but soooo much great information!

[Wilfredwilfredforce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mint book

[M C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ebook. Wonderful. Adam’s as junk bond salesman to the Dutch!

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://bestpresidentialbios.com/2013/...

“John Adams: Party of One” is James Grant’s fifth of seven books, and one of two he has written on topics unrelated to his most well-known competency: finance. Grant is best known as founder and editor of the iconic Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a financial journal widely-read on Wall Street. Published in 2005, Grant’s “John Adams” is one of the most recent biographies written about our second president.

As the last of several biographies I will read on John Adams, I expected Grant’s biography to be one of the easiest to read. After all, this was not my first John Adams rodeo and assuming I’m capable of retaining facts over a limited number of weeks, very little of Adams’ life should be unknown to me by now. I therefore assumed the only real effort in reading this biography would be to understand the author’s perspective on Adams as compared to those of previous authors.

Much to my surprise, I found this a difficult book to digest, but not because the author’s word choice was esoteric or abstruse. On the contrary, the book was written in straightforward language with less grandiloquent phraseology than many others. At times, in fact, the book actually bordered on being sterile and passionless, almost a matter-of-fact rendering of historical events. But what I found particularly frustrating at times was that the book often seemed a series of interesting mini-stories strung together in a fashion more aligned with a stream-of-consciousness than to the actual flow of history.

Within individual chapters the biography was much less a chronological examination of Adams’ life and more a hopscotch through the theme of that chapter, sometimes jumping forward a bit and skipping one or two important historical events (like Adams nominating Washington as commanding general of the army) but later backtracking to fill in the holes (on this occasion, only after spending several paragraphs describing the dysentery which swept through the Adams house several months after Washington’s selection to lead the Revolution).

What was sometimes lost to me in this lurch through history was a common thread, the author’s overarching sense of purpose. I enjoyed most of the numerous “short stories” but found it difficult to understand the sequencing. It was a bit like driving from Boston to DC, taking a series of interesting detours, but never being entirely sure which direction you were about to turn. As I was reading this biography, I often assumed I knew “what was coming next”. Invariably, though, I did not. Whatever I expected often had been referred to already (but not with the emphasis I expected), or had to wait another few pages before appearing in the text, seemingly out of order.

In an effort to really focus on Adams himself (which seems to be the author’s modus operandi), Grant often allows important historical events to receive little attention, as if their impact on Adams was not meaningful. For example, the Boston tea party only garners two sentences; the Battles of Lexington and Concord are mentioned as if they were not the first engagements of the American Revolution. Yet other items that seem trivial (if interesting) are more well-described. But it is not for lack of space that Grant rushes past several seminal events – his “John Adams” weighs in at the median length among the eight books on Adams I own.

But by no means was this biography entirely frustrating. While I do see the stakes as higher for the more recently published John Adams biographies (joining an already crowded field of worthy biographies), Grant’s “John Adams” was well-researched, pursued interesting issues that received less attention in other books (such as the hypothesis that Adams suffered from Graves Disease) and did a particularly nice job of fully describing the economic and monetary challenges Adams faced in his role as a quasi-financier in Europe.

Overall, however, I believe James Grant’s “John Adams: Party of One” finds itself in a tough position among the significant body of works on John Adams: it is neither a “history” book in the sense that many Washington and Adams biographies are (being comprehensive in their treatment of the main character as well as the times and the context), nor is it really a character analysis in the spirit of “Passionate Sage”. Strictly as a biography on our fascinating second president, Grant’s book is more than adequate. However, from my perspective, it is far from the best.

Overall rating: 3¾ stars

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the John Adams biographies I have read, this struck me as one of the oddest and hardest to pin down. It's fascinating but frustrating, insightful but incomplete, too long in parts but way too short overall.

It might have been more helpful had this book been positioned and marketed as a character study rather than a full biography, to free author James Grant from any need to adhere to a traditional biographical timeline of events. In a typical Adams biography, there are certain subjects and events you expect to read about as the book progresses. But this book meanders, lingers on some topics and swiftly skims over others. If you're familiar with Adams, you might think you know what's coming next, but you're often proven wrong.

Rather than being fully described, certain seminal events like the Second Continental Congress and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence seem to serve only as backdrops for longer explorations of Adams's thoughts, influences and character. Other topics, such as Adams's relationship with George Washington during his service as Vice President, are not explored, and Adams's famed close-then-strained-then-renewed friendship with Thomas Jefferson is barely included. Only in passing is it ever even mentioned that Jefferson was Adams's Vice President. And only in the last chapter, where Grant is compelled to include some of the correspondence between Adams and Jefferson in their retirement, does he even attempt to briefly explain the trajectory of their relationship.

In place of some of these skimmed-over events - such as the mere chapter-and-a-half covering Adams's entire presidency - are very long sections on other aspects of Adams's life that don't get as much attention in other biographies. There are seven-and-a-half chapters devoted to his diplomatic service in Europe, for example, which seems to indicate that Grant feels this part of Adams's life merits the most attention. And yet much of this section is devoted to long descriptions of his journeys to various European capitals, what he saw, where he stayed and what he ate along the way.

To be fair, part of this book's very strength is that it focuses on aspects of Adams's life, thoughts, influences and character that don't get as much attention in other biographies. Grant spends a good deal of time on Adams's religious beliefs and influences, for example, and explores how Adams's diplomatic service informed his later political career. And, given Grant's background in finance, a good deal of space is devoted to financial matters - too much space, perhaps, for the layman, unless paragraphs like this, about Adams negotiating a loan, float your boat:

"The terms were plain vanilla: 5 percent for ten years, with amortization of principal to begin in year eleven. The effective rate of interest would be closer to 5.5 percent, however, because fees paid to the bankers, commission agents, and brokers amounted to 4.5 percent annual interest expense..."

Despite some overly-descriptive sections such as the above example, the writing overall is quite good and engaging. I particularly liked the very first line of the first chapter: "John Adams was an American long before there was a United States of America," which evokes the first line in Ulysses Grant's memoirs.

But good writing and insightful commentary on aspects of Adams's life don't obscure the fact that this book feels incomplete. Parts of it are too long, yet the book could have been longer in order to spend more time on things that were left out or skimmed over. Ultimately, Adams dies on the very last page of the very last chapter, so there is no discussion of Adams's legacy. He just dies, and a meandering journey comes to an abrupt end - a fittingly frustrating end to an insightful but incomplete tale.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Write a review...I loved this book and chose it because the Folio Society offered it, which is pretty much an honor. It adds so much of what was glossed over in my high school history courses. What impressed me most about Adams was his Puritan sense of duty. He cared little about what we now call "legacy" (which Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin closely protected) and sacrificed many opportunities to better his financial and social status. Best of all, what he loved most of all and forsake was getting in the mud and muck of his farm. The was a thorny creature and delightfully described "As always honest, often wise, and sometimes out of is mind." I agree with the other reviewers that the evolution of his thoughts are well described. When I think how critical Adams was to our nation, my thoughts are tempered by how fortunate he was to have Abigail. Who else would have put up with him and gave him such unflinching support. This might not be an ideal book for a scholar, but to me it was ideal for someone who loves to read history and stay out of the reeds!

[Gary Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was a little slow at first because the author talks so much about his puritan upbringing, but Grant picks it up and really brings a light to Adams that even McCullough didn't portray. A good read if you're an Adams fan, but check out McCullough's book first.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, and well researched, book about a president I knew little about before reading the book. A lot of background about his life pre-presidency. I felt the information about his presidency was brief and rushed. However, still a biography worth reading.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a fine biography of John Adams it’s not quite got the panache as David Mccullough’s version. Still worth reading if even just for the details brought forth during Adam’s tenure as America’s diplomat to France, the Netherlands and England.

[Matt]

A real American. Free thinking. Autocratic. Interested in American excellence...

[Monty]

I feel like the book could have used twenty or so pages more on Adams's post-presidential life. That aside, this was a fabulously dense and informative read. With Grant's attention to Adams's political and financial achievements, this book nicely complements McCullough's narrative-driven account of his life. I definitely lean toward the latter because I'm a sucker for an elegantly packaged story, but the amount that I've learned (hopefully) made soldiering through this book worthwhile.