john quincy adams biography books

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The Best Biographies of John Quincy Adams

27 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by Steve in Best Biographies Posts , President #06 - J Q Adams

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American history , best biographies , book reviews , Harlow Unger , John Quincy Adams , Joseph Wheelan , Marie Hecht , Paul Nagel , presidential biographies , Presidents

In every respect, John Quincy Adams’s life was made for a great novel or movie…or even a good biography. At age ten, John Quincy had his first opportunity to travel to Europe with his father (a diplomat in Paris) and begin a youth filled with foreign affairs, multiple languages and new customs. This in an era when few New Englanders of any age ever travelled beyond their own state’s borders.

Returning only briefly to the US, the father/son duo soon traveled abroad again – this time seeing Spain, France and the Netherlands. Fortunately for posterity, twelve-year-old John Quincy began a diary on this trip abroad – a diary he maintained for almost seventy years until his death.

As barely a teenager, multilingual John Quincy had the opportunity to leave his father behind in Europe and travel to St. Petersburg. He was asked to serve there as private secretary and translator to the American minister to Russia who, it turns out, could not speak French (the language of diplomacy at the time)…or even Russian. Later, having barely received a structured education of any kind, he began attending the University of Leyden while his father was a diplomat in Holland.

Returning to America to attend Harvard he found life in the US (and the legal profession, which he later entered) quite dull by comparison. After all, most of his sentient youth was spent absorbing multiple languages, attending diplomatic functions, going to the theatre and opera, and discussing world affairs with luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Lafayette and countless European kings, queens, counts and diplomats.

John Quincy’s rise was not over, of course. His experiences in Europe and Russia made him the obvious choice of four presidents to serve as a U.S. diplomat in multiple countries; he also served a term as a U.S. Senator and was Secretary of State under President Monroe. In 1824 he was elected President of the United States. Ironically, his presidency encompassed the least remarkable and most un successful four-year stretch of his entire life.

Unfortunately, his single term in office was hampered by his political “purity” (or naiveté), tactical errors in filling his cabinet, his failure to fully embrace either of the prevailing political parties, and a hostile Congress. He left the White House dejected, but was soon elected to the House of Representatives where he served – with great passion and impact – until the day he died. Indeed, his post- presidential years were some of the most successful and potent years of his entire public life.

Today, few Americans remember much about John Quincy Adams. And most of those who do recognize his legacy merely recall the vague impression left by an unsuccessful presidency. But in my mind, having just re-lived his life four times (on paper, anyway), John Quincy Adams’s life’s story is one of the more remarkable I have ever encountered.

Through hard work, good luck, a brilliant mind and a keen eye, John Quincy led almost a Swiss Family Robinson- style life of political and diplomatic adventure. Many will be surprised to learn that his single notable public failure – his presidency – was accompanied by a lifelong battle with intense self-doubt, self-criticism and even depression. But from start to finish, John Quincy’s was a life made for a great (if sometimes tragic) story.

* Marie Hecht’s “ John Quincy Adams: A Personal History of an Independent Man ” is the oldest, and lengthiest, of the four JQA biographies I read. In this book, Hecht marches steadily and comprehensively through John Quincy’s life, seeming to leave few stones unturned. This is neither the most exciting nor the most efficient biography of Adams I read. But it is probably the most thorough (if not insightful) of them all. All that is missing is the penetrating analysis of the personal side of John Quincy Adams which was provided in more contemporary biographies. ( Full review here )

“ John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life ” by Paul Nagel was published in 1997 and appears to have been the first significant biography of JQA in the twenty-five years following the publication of Hecht’s biography. In about one-third fewer pages, Nagel accomplishes most of what Hecht achieved, but with the added benefit of providing significantly more insight into the “private” side of John Quincy Adams. This seems particularly useful since John Quincy’s personal demons (endless self-doubt and episodic depression) inspired – or hampered – much that we witness of John Quincy Adams. ( Full review here )

Joseph Wheelan’s “ Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade ” provides a distinctly different perspective on John Quincy’s life. Rather than offering yet another review of Adams’s life from start to finish, Wheelan choses to focus on John Quincy’s last two decades of life – those which followed his unspectacular presidency. Despite his age and failing health, this was perhaps the most vigorous and effective period of his life. While this book cannot fully take the place of a traditional biography, no one’s understanding of John Quincy can be complete without reading “Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade.” ( Full review here )

“ John Quincy Adams ” by Harlow Unger is the most recently-published of my John Quincy Adams biographies. Without a doubt, Unger’s biography is the most “efficient” of the four as it covers Adams’s entire life (with some “extra” context-setting American history thrown in for good measure) in the fewest pages. This provides a fast-paced reading experience but also a less informative one. Left aside are numerous details, side-stories and nuances that are crucial in really understanding the sixth president. This book is useful as a quick-read on JQA, but for a slightly deeper investment, readers will get more from another biography. ( Full review here )

– – – – – – –

[ Added June 2019 ]

* Five years after reading the preceding four biographies of JQA I read “ John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit ” by James Traub – a biography from my “follow-up” list which was only published after I had completed my initial round of reading on JQA.

Published in 2016, “ John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit ” is not perfect, but sets the new standard for biographies of the 6th president. This book is well-organized, engaging and uncommonly thoughtful. It is erudite without being stiff, and is detailed but not exhausting. In the interest of efficiency Traub left coverage of certain interesting but tangential events from JQA’s youth out of the text. And the chapters covering Adams’s relatively unsuccessful presidency are probably the least fulfilling in the biography. But the book’s introduction, its consistently keen dissection of Adams’s personality, its observations concerning early American politics and its carefully nuanced coverage of Adams’s attitude toward slavery overwhelm any shortcomings. ( Full review here )

[ Added Jan 2021 ]

* I was able to read Fred Kaplan’s 2014 “ John Quincy Adams: American Visionary ” which was published the year after I initially got through the then-best biographies of JQA. With a 570-page narrative, this is the second longest of the half-dozen biographies of Adams I have read and among the most thorough. The biography emphasizes JQA’s love of poetry and his foresight in seeing the national fracture caused by slavery. But, the author’s predilection for presenting the narrative in an extraordinarily non-linear way is likely to frustrate readers new to Adams. And in the end, I find this to be a better study of John Quincy Adams than biography . ( Full review here )

[ Added Apr 2022 ]

* I finally read William J. Cooper’s 2017 “ The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics .” This is a resonably efficient (441-page) biography that does not aspire to the role of definitive biography. Instead, Cooper aims to place JQA within the context of his era of transformational politics. As a result, Cooper leaves aside much of Adams’s life as it relates to his heritage, parents, siblings, children and friends with a decided emphasis on his persona – particularly as it relates to his life in politics. Readers seeking to understand JQA’s place in history will find this enormously rewarding; those hoping to see the world through the eyes of the 6th president are likely to find it too clinical and focused on Adams’s public life. ( Full review here )

Best Biography of John Quincy Adams: “ John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit ” by James Traub

Honorable Mention: “ John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life ” by Paul Nagel

and “ John Quincy Adams: A Personal History of an Independent Man ” by Marie Hecht

Best “Beach Read” on JQA: “ John Quincy Adams ” by Harlow Unger

The 10 Best Books on President John Quincy Adams

Essential books on john quincy adams.

There are numerous books on John Quincy Adams, and it comes with good reason, beyond being America’s sixth President (1825-1829), he was a member of multiple political parties over the years, and also served as a diplomat, a Senator, and a member of the House of Representatives.

“Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all lawful government upon earth,” he remarked.

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of America’s most consequential figures to the height of political power, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best books on John Quincy Adams.

John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life by Paul C. Nagel

February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.: Congressman John Quincy Adams, rising to speak, suddenly collapses at his desk; two days later, he dies in the Speaker’s chamber. The public mourning that followed, writes Paul C. Nagel, “exceeded anything previously seen in America.” Forgotten was his failed presidency and his often cold demeanor. It was the memory of an extraordinary human being – one who in his last years had fought heroically for the right of petition and against a war to expand slavery – that drew a grateful people to salute his coffin in the Capitol and to stand by the railroad tracks as his bier was transported from Washington to Boston.

Nagel probes deeply into the psyche of this cantankerous, misanthropic, erudite, hardworking son of a former president whose remarkable career spanned many offices: minister to Holland, Russia, and England, U.S. senator, secretary of state, president of the United States (1825-1829), and, finally, U.S. representative (the only ex-president to serve in the House).

On the basis of a thorough study of Adams’s seventy-year diary, among a host of other documents, the author gives us a richer account than we have yet had of his life – his passionate marriage to Louisa Johnson, his personal tragedies (two sons lost to alcoholism), his brilliant diplomacy, his recurring depression, his exasperating behavior – and shows us why, in the end, only Abraham Lincoln’s death evoked a greater outpouring of national sorrow in nineteenth-century America.

Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

Following his single term as President of the United States (1825-1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor’s inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done. Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the “incubus of Jacksonianism.” It was the opening chapter in what was arguably the most remarkable post-presidency in American history.

In this engaging biography, historian Joseph Wheelan describes Adams’s battles against the House Gag Rule that banished abolition petitions; the removal of Eastern Indian tribes; and the annexation of slave-holding Texas, while recounting his efforts to establish the Smithsonian Institution.

As a “man of the whole country,” Adams was not bound by political party, yet was re-elected to the House eight times before collapsing at his “post of duty” on February 21, 1848, and then dying in the House Speaker’s office.

Nation Builder by Charles N. Edel

“America goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy” – John Quincy Adams’s famous words are often quoted to justify noninterference in other nations’ affairs. Yet when he spoke them, Adams was not advocating neutrality or passivity but rather outlining a national policy that balanced democratic idealism with a pragmatic understanding of the young republic’s capabilities and limitations.

America’s rise from a confederation of revolutionary colonies to a world power is often treated as inevitable, but Charles N. Edel’s provocative biography of Adams argues that he served as the central architect of a grand strategy that shaped America’s rise. Adams’s particular combination of ideas and policies made him a critical link between the founding generation and the Civil War-era nation of Lincoln.

Adams’s ambitions on behalf of America’s interests, combined with a shrewd understanding of how to counter the threats arrayed against them, allowed him to craft a multitiered policy to insulate the nation from European quarrels, expand U.S. territory, harness natural resources, develop domestic infrastructure, education, and commerce, and transform the United States into a model of progress and liberty respected throughout the world.

Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller

In the 1830s slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a “gag rule” to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring “the peculiar institution” into the national debate, a battle that some historians have called “the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy.”

The campaign to make slavery officially and respectably debatable was waged by John Quincy Adams who spent nine years defying gags, accusations of treason, and assassination threats. In the end, he made his case through a combination of cunning and sheer endurance. Telling this story with a brilliant command of detail, Arguing About Slavery endows history with majestic sweep, heroism, and moral weight.

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger

He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad . He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president.

John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. In this masterful biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals Quincy Adams as a towering figure in the nation’s formative years and one of the most courageous figures in American history, which is why he ranked first in John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage .

The Lost Founding Father by William J. Cooper

Long relegated to the sidelines of history as the hyper-intellectual son of John and Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams has never basked in the historical spotlight. Remembered, if at all, as an ineffective president during an especially rancorous time, Adams was humiliated in office after the contested election of 1824, viciously assailed by populist opponents for being both slippery and effete, and then resoundingly defeated by the western war hero Andrew Jackson, whose 1828 election ushered in an era of unparalleled expansion.

Aware of this reputation yet convinced that Adams deserves a reconsideration, award-winning historian William J. Cooper has reframed the sixth president’s life in an entirely original way, demonstrating that Adams should be considered our lost Founding Father, his morality and political philosophy the final link to the great visionaries who created our nation.

As Cooper demonstrates in this gem among books on John Quincy Adams, no one else in his generation – not Clay, Webster, Calhoun, or Jackson – ever experienced Europe as young Adams did, who at fourteen translated from French at the court of Catherine the Great. In fact, his very exposure to the ideas of the European Enlightenment that had so influenced the Founding Fathers, including their embrace of reason, were hardly shared by his contemporaries, particularly those who could not countenance slaves as equal human beings.

The Birth of Modern Politics by Lynn Hudson Parson

The 1828 presidential election, which pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams, has long been hailed as a watershed moment in American political history. It was the contest in which an unlettered, hot-tempered southwestern frontiersman, trumpeted by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, soundly defeated a New England “aristocrat” whose education and political resume were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life.

It was, many historians have argued, the country’s first truly democratic presidential election. It was also the election that opened a pandora’s box of campaign tactics, including coordinated media, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund-raising, organized rallies, opinion polling, campaign paraphernalia, ethnic voting blocs, “opposition research,” and smear tactics.

In this gem among books on John Quincy Adams, Parsons shows that the Adams-Jackson contest also began a national debate that is eerily contemporary, pitting those whose cultural, social, and economic values were rooted in community action for the common good against those who believed the common good was best served by giving individuals as much freedom as possible to promote their own interests. The book offers fresh and illuminating portraits of both Adams and Jackson and reveals how, despite their vastly different backgrounds, they had started out with many of the same values, admired one another, and had often been allies in common causes.

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams’s destiny was foreordained. He was not only “The Greatest Traveler of His Age,” but his country’s most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy’s world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age.

As his diplomat father’s adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America’s own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington’s appointment, on his phenomenal work abroad, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage.

But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848.

John Quincy Adams by Robert V. Remini

Chosen president by the House of Representatives after an inconclusive election against Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams often failed to mesh with the ethos of his era, pushing unsuccessfully for a strong, consolidated national government. Historian Robert V. Remini recounts how in the years before his presidency Adams was a shrewd, influential diplomat, and later, as a dynamic secretary of state under President James Monroe, he solidified many basic aspects of American foreign policy, including the Monroe Doctrine.

Undoubtedly his greatest triumph was the negotiation of the Transcontinental Treaty, through which Spain acknowledged Florida to be part of the United States. After his term in office, he earned the nickname “Old Man Eloquent” for his passionate antislavery speeches.

Descent from Glory by Paul C. Nagel

There has never been any doubt that the Adams family was America’s first family in our politics and memory. This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks.

If you enjoyed this guide to essential books on John Quincy Adams, be sure to check out our list of The 10 Best Books on President John Adams !

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John Quincy Adams

A Man for the Whole People

By Randall Woods

Jun 25, 2024 | ISBN 9780593187241 | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 --> | ISBN 9780593187241 -->

Jun 25, 2024 | ISBN 9780593187258 | ISBN 9780593187258 -->

Jun 25, 2024 | 1260 Minutes | ISBN 9780593869956 -->

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Jun 25, 2024 | ISBN 9780593187241

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Jun 25, 2024 | ISBN 9780593869956

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About John Quincy Adams

A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy Adams In this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy’s long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic. Born the first son of John and Abigail Adams, he was pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps in both law and politics. His boyhood was spent amid the furor of the American Revolution, and as a teen he assisted his father on diplomatic missions in Europe, hobnobbing with monarchs and statesmen, dining with Ben Franklin, sitting by Voltaire at the opera. He received a world-class education, becoming fluent in Latin, Greek, German, and French. His astonishing intellect and poise would lead to a diplomatic career of his own, in which he’d help solidify his fledgling nation’s standing in the world. He was intertwined with every famous American of his day, from Washington to Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. He was on stage, frequently front and center, during the Revolutionary Era, the fractious birth of American party politics, the War of 1812, the Era of Good Feelings, and the peak of Continental Expansion. It was against this backdrop that he served as an ambassador, senator, secretary of state, and, unhappily, as president. The driving force behind both the Transcontinental Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine, this champion of Manifest Destiny spent the last years of his life fighting against the annexation of Texas because it would facilitate the spread of slavery. This deeply researched, brilliantly written volume delves into John Quincy’s intellectual pursuits and political thought; his loving, yet at times strained, marriage to Louisa Catherine Johnson, whom he met in London; his troubling relationships with his three sons; and his fiery post-presidency rebirth in Congress as he became the chamber’s most vocal opponent of slavery.

About Randall Woods

Randall Woods is a John A. Cooper Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas, where he has taught since 1971. His books include LBJ: Architect of American Ambition and Fulbright: A Biography, which won the Robert H. Ferrell… More about Randall Woods

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By Joseph J. Ellis

April 4, 2016

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Militant Spirit By James Traub 620 pp. Basic Books. $35.

In June of 1775, when John Quincy Adams was almost 8 years old, his mother, the indomitable Abigail, took him by the hand up a peak in Braintree, Mass., to view from afar the battle of Bunker Hill. Over 70 years later, in February 1848, “Old Man Eloquent,” as he was then called, collapsed at his desk in the House of Representatives and an obscure one-term congressman named Abraham Lincoln was assigned to the committee making the funeral arrangements. Many of the eulogies to Adams identified him as the last remaining link to the founding generation. James Traub’s splendid new biography, “John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit,” asks us to envision him as the missing link between the creation of the American Republic and its near dissolution in the Civil War.

John Quincy Adams is easy to admire, but difficult to like, much less love. Traub, whose books include “The Freedom Agenda,” recognizes this problem from the start and solves it by not trying. His Adams is cold, emotionally stunted, impossibly solitary and self-contained, just the kind of man who, as Ralph Waldo Emerson described him, took sulfuric acid with his tea. Even his own adoring son Charles Francis acknowledged that “he makes enemies by perpetually wearing the iron mask.”

The mature Adams, with all his sharp edges and impossible standards of perfection, was very much a product of the parenting practices of Abigail and John. Many American boys — now also girls — are raised to believe that they can grow up to become president of the United States. John Quincy was raised to believe that anything less rendered him an abject failure. Abigail was actually tougher on him than John, and one can only wince at her admonition, written after her 10-year-old son had completed a risky voyage across the Atlantic with his father: “For dear as you are to me, I had much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed . . . rather than see you an immoral profligate or a graceless child.” John Quincy never had a childhood, nor was he raised to be a happy man. He was instead fashioned like a hardened steel projectile, aimed at the center of American history.

The sheer scale of Adams’s career poses narrative problems for any aspiring biographer: minister to four European capitals, senator, Harvard professor, secretary of state, president, representative in the House. And even that listing is deceptively simple. More than 60 years ago the Yale historian Samuel Flagg Bemis required two fat volumes to record the public story, which flowed through diplomatic nooks and crannies in multiple venues and stretched from the Louisiana Purchase, through the Monroe Doctrine, to the Mexican War and beyond.

Traub begins with the assumption that the career should be folded into the life, not the other way around. He therefore makes Adams’s journal his central source, the prism through which to view the man. He provides chapter-length accounts, for example, of the Monroe Doctrine and Adams’s argument before the Supreme Court defending African prisoners in the Amistad case. Some scholarly specialists might ask for more details, but I found his versions reliably thorough, blissfully bereft of jargon and nicely paced to blend with the private story.

Which is to say that we glimpse Adams swimming with nothing but goggles in the Potomac at dawn, writing an epic poem about early Ireland, planting hundreds of fruit trees on the trips back to Quincy and, most important of all, interacting awkwardly with Louisa Catherine Adams, his wife of 50 years. Louisa Catherine was an orchid of a woman, indispensable as John Quincy’s diplomatic partner, with a social sense that he altogether lacked, a bit fragile (nine miscarriages) and the hummingbird to Abigail’s eagle. Traub devotes more space to Louisa Catherine than any previous Adams biographer, in part because she is so omnipresent in the journal.

A word about that journal. It is over 14,000 pages long, and without much question the most revealing record by a prominent figure in American history. Adams himself expressed his own amazement at its scope and length: “There has perhaps not been another individual of the human race, whose existence from early childhood to fourscore years has been noted down by his own hand so minutely as mine.” Traub is the beneficiary of heroic work by the editors of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society, who have transcribed and digitized the entire journal, allowing Traub to read it on his desktop.

As Traub explains, the presidency was not the capstone of Adams’s career so much as an awkward interlude. This is ironic, since he had been groomed for the office since childhood. But he violated his most cherished principles by effectively stealing the election from Andrew Jackson in a back-room deal with Henry Clay after the decision went to the House. And his presidential agenda was a double-barreled anachronism: 30 years too late, as an echo of the Hamiltonian program of the 1790s; over a hundred years too early, as a preview of the New Deal. It proposed an activist federal government that promoted vast “internal improvements” (roads, canals) and public projects that featured a national university. In Jacksonian America such a robust expression of government power was dead on arrival. Traub endorses the verdict of the British historian George Dangerfield, describing the Adams presidency as “a rather conspicuous example of a great man in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the right motives and a tragic inability to make himself understood.”

Reverse all the ingredients in that verdict and you have an accurate assessment of John Quincy’s performance as secretary of state. His great achievement was to translate Washington’s vision in the 1796 Farewell Address — neutrality abroad, unity at home — into a grand strategy in which unity at home came to mean consolidation of American control over most of the North American continent. All the political templates that moved against him domestically shifted in his favor diplomatically: Europe after Waterloo craved peace and stability, and Spanish decline continued, rendering her American possessions indefensible, as Adams made abundantly clear in negotiating the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819. Even British ascendancy proved a huge American asset, effectively providing the naval protection that made enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine’s policy of hemispheric isolation possible.

But the most famous Adams utterance, delivered on July 4, 1821, emphasized the limitations of American expansion, chiefly because he believed that republican principles were unlikely to flourish in foreign soil. George Kennan, the architect of the “containment” strategy during the Cold War, loved to cite these words about America’s proper role in the world: “She does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

His long service in the House has the appearance of a quirky epilogue, but in fact was his finest hour. His one-man crusade against the gag rule was part of a larger campaign to insist that slavery be placed on the political agenda as the major piece of unfinished business left by the founders. All the irritating Adams characteristics worked to his advantage here, as his arrogance, stubbornness and sheer audacity made him, as one frustrated Virginia slaveholder put it, the “acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of Southern slavery that ever existed.”

Along the way he left two political legacies that Lincoln subsequently embraced. He insisted that the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, was the seminal document of the American founding, making slavery a self-evident anomaly that must be put on the road to extinction. He also insisted that he was not an abolitionist, because a frontal assault on slavery most probably meant ending the union. Therefore, slavery must be attacked on the flanks, which Lincoln eventually did by opposing its extension to the western territories, but not its existence in the Deep South.

Traub gives the last word to Louisa Catherine, who outlived her husband by four years. (Both houses of Congress closed down in her honor, the first time this tribute was paid a woman.) Traub appears to endorse her final judgment as his own, concluding that John Quincy Adams should be found “exasperating, tendentious, self-absorbed and yet, in the end, magnificent.”

An illustration caption on April 10 with a review of “John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit,” by James Traub, misstated the number of candidates in the presidential election of 1824. There were four, not three. (In addition to Adams, the candidates were Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay.) A credit with the illustration misstated the surname of the 19th-century cartoonist who depicted the candidates in a foot-race. He was David Claypoole Johnston, not Johnson.

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Joseph J. Ellis is the author, most recently, of “The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution.”

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The Best Books To Learn About President John Quincy Adams

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The Best Book About John Quincy Adams (Appears on 7 Lists)

John quincy adams: a public life, a private life by paul c. nagel.

At Times Dull
Best Presidential Bios
Library of Congress
Mandi Lindner
Presidential History
Presidents USA
The Tailored Man

February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.: Congressman John Quincy Adams, rising to speak, suddenly collapses at his desk; two days later, he dies in the Speaker’s chamber. The public mourning that followed, writes Paul C. Nagel, “exceeded anything previously seen in America.” Forgotten was his failed presidency and his often cold demeanor. It was the memory of an extraordinary human being–one who in his last years had fought heroically for the right of petition and against a war to expand slavery–that drew a grateful people to salute his coffin in the Capitol and to stand by the railroad tracks as his bier was transported from Washington to Boston. Nagel probes deeply into the psyche of this cantankerous, misanthropic, erudite, hardworking son of a former president whose remarkable career spanned many offices: minister to Holland, Russia, and England, U.S. senator, secretary of state, president of the United States (1825-1829), and, finally, U.S. representative (the only ex-president to serve in the House). On the basis of a thorough study of Adams’ seventy-year diary, among a host of other documents, the author gives us a richer account than we have yet had of JQA’s life–his passionate marriage to Louisa Johnson, his personal tragedies (two sons lost to alcoholism), his brilliant diplomacy, his recurring depression, his exasperating behavior–and shows us why, in the end, only Abraham Lincoln’s death evoked a greater outpouring of national sorrow in nineteenth-century America. We come to see how much Adams disliked politics and hoped for more from life than high office; how he sought distinction in literary and scientific endeavors, and drew his greatest pleasure from being a poet, critic, translator, essayist, botanist, and professor of oratory at Harvard; how tension between the public and private Adams vexed his life; and how his frustrations kept him masked and aloof (and unpopular). Nagel’s great achievement, in this first biography of America’s sixth president in a quarter century, is finally to portray Adams in all his talent and complexity.

Learn More About Book

#2-3 Books (Appear on 4 Lists Each)

John quincy adams by robert v. remini.

John Quincy Adams (The American Presidents #6) by Robert V. Remini, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

All The Presidents Books
The Washington Post

Chosen president by the House of Representatives after an inconclusive election against Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams often failed to mesh with the ethos of his era, pushing unsuccessfully for a strong, consolidated national government. Historian Robert V. Remini recounts how in the years before his presidency Adams was a shrewd, influential diplomat, and later, as a dynamic secretary of state under President James Monroe, he solidified many basic aspects of American foreign policy, including the Monroe Doctrine.

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams—the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams—and persuasively demonstrates how Adams’s inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.

#4-5 (Appear on 3 Lists)

John quincy adams by harlow unger.

He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president.

Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

1858 --- by George Peter Alexander Healy --- Image by © The Corcoran Gallery of Art/CORBIS

Lists It Appears On:

Following his single term as President of the United States (1825–1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor’s inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done (the only two presidents ever to do so). Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the “incubus of Jacksonianism.” It was the opening chapter in what was arguably the most remarkable post-presidency in American history.

#6-8 (Appear on 2 Lists)

John quincy adams: a personal history of an independent man by marie hecht.

John Quincy Adams- A Personal History of an Independent Man by Marie B. Hecht, Katherine E. Speirs

The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams by Leonard L. Richards

Richards’ study presents not only a vivid portrait of John Quincy Adams but also provides an insightful exploration of American politics in the 1830s and 40s. Examining one of the few presidents who sustained a political career after his term in the White House, Richards depicts how two years after losing the presidential election to Andrew Jackson, Adams ran for the House of Representatives and served there until his death seventeen years later.

John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy by Samuel Flagg Bemis

John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy (John Quincy Adams #1) by Samuel Flagg Bemis

#9-24 (Appear on 1 List)

American phoenix: john quincy and louisa adams, the war of 1812, and the exile that saved american independence by jane hampton cook.

American Phoenix is the sweeping, riveting tale of a grand historic adventure across forbidding oceans and frozen tundra—from the bustling ports and towering birches of Boston to the remote reaches of pre-Soviet Russia, from an exile in arctic St. Petersburg to resurrection and reunion among the gardens of Paris. Upon these varied landscapes this Adams and his Eve must find a way to transform their banishment into America’s salvation.

Amistad: A Novel by Alexs Pate

Based on the true story of the 1839 mutiny on board the Spanish slave ship, Amistad, here is the frightening sequence of events that led fifty-three young men and women – and one young nation – to seek freedom and justice for all people. Amistad is the story of Cinque, the illegally enslaved son of a Mende chief who led an uprising full of fury and courage. It is also the story of John Quincy Adams, the former American president, who reluctantly heeded the call to justice and defended Cinque in a Supreme Court trial that would alter the nation’s history. And it is the story of men and women searching to find truth and to uphold the basic tenets of the American Constitution. Brilliantly narrated by award-winning novelist Alexs Pate, Amistad celebrates the human spirit’s profound determination to fight, hope, and to be free. Visit the “Amistad” book site! A junior novelization is also available for young adults.

Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress by William Lee Miller

Arguing about Slavery- The Great Battle in the United States Congress by William Lee Miller

In the 1830s slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a “gag rule” to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring “the peculiar institution” into the national debate, a battle that some historians have called “the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy.” The campaign to make slavery officially and respectably debatable was waged by John Quincy Adams who spent nine years defying gags, accusations of treason, and assassination threats. In the end he made his case through a combination of cunning and sheer endurance. Telling this story with a brilliant command of detail, Arguing About Slaveryendows history with majestic sweep, heroism, and moral weight.

Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family by Paul C. Nagel

There has never been any doubt that the Adams family was America’s first family in our politics and memory. This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks.

Diary of John Quincy Adams by John Quincy Adams

The Diary of John Quincy Adams 1794-1845 by John Quincy Adams

This 586 page book is a compilation of the original 12 volumes published between 1874-1877 by Charles Francis Adams. Allan Nevins has been able to select from the “Memoirs” that matter which is most important and of the greatest permanent worth. He” has given emphasis to the material which throws light on the social background of the period, on John Quincy Adams’ character, and on the more dramatic political and diplomatic events of the time. Thus, in 600 pages, he has presented nearly everything from the Diary that the general reader and ordinary student will want.”

John Quincy Adams by Lynn H. Parsons

John Quincy Adams- A Bibliography by Lynn H. Parsons

The 1828 presidential election, which pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams, has long been hailed as a watershed moment in American political history. It was the contest in which an unlettered, hot-tempered southwestern frontiersman, trumpeted by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, soundly defeated a New England “aristocrat” whose education and political résumé were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life. It was, many historians have argued, the country’s first truly democratic presidential election. It was also the election that opened a Pandora’s box of campaign tactics, including coordinated media, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund-raising, organized rallies, opinion polling, campaign paraphernalia, ethnic voting blocs, “opposition research,” and smear tactics.

John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire by William Earl Weeks

This is the story of a man, a treaty, and a nation. The man was John Quincy Adams, regarded by most historians as America’s greatest secretary of state. The treaty was the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819, of which Adams was the architect. It acquired Florida for the young United States, secured a western boundary extending to the Pacific, and bolstered the nation’s position internationally. As William Weeks persuasively argues, the document also represented the first determined step in the creation of an American global empire.

John Quincy Adams and the Union by Samuel Flagg Bemis

John Quincy Adams and the Union (John Quincy Adams #2) by Samuel Flagg Bemis

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub

John Quincy Adams was the last of his kind—a Puritan from the age of the Founders who despised party and compromise, yet dedicated himself to politics and government. The son of John Adams, he was a brilliant ambassador and secretary of state, a frustrated president at a historic turning point in American politics, and a dedicated congressman who literally died in office—at the age of 80, in the House of Representatives, in the midst of an impassioned political debate.

Letters Of John Quincy Adams, To His Son, On The Bible And Its Teachings by John Quincy Adams

Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teaching by John Quincy Adams

Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams by William H. Seward

Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams- Sixth President of the Unied States by William H. Seward

HENRY ADAMS the founder of the Adams family in America fled from ecclesiastical oppression in England and joined the Colony at a very early period but at what precise time is not recorded.

Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams by Margery M. Heffron

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife and political partner of John Quincy Adams, became one of the most widely known women in America when her husband assumed office as sixth president in 1825. Shrewd, intellectual, and articulate, she was close to the center of American power over many decades, and extensive archives reveal her as an unparalleled observer of the politics, personalities, and issues of her day. Louisa left behind a trove of journals, essays, letters, and other writings, yet no biographer has mined these riches until now. Margery Heffron brings Louisa out of the shadows at last to offer the first full and nuanced portrait of an extraordinary first lady.

Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams by Josiah Quincy

The ensuing Memoir comprises the most important events in the life of a statesman second to none of his contemporaries in laborious and faithful devotion to the service of his country. The light attempted to be thrown on his course has been derived from personal acquaintance, from his public works, and from authentic unpublished materials. The chief endeavor has been to render him the expositor of his own motives, principles, and character, without fear or favor,—in the spirit neither of criticism or eulogy.

The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters by Paul C. Nagel

From his vast storehouse of knowledge about the Adams family. Nagelpulls out the feminine threads of that tapestry to write all about the Adams women, from Abigail to daughter Nabby, from Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy, to Clover Adams, wife of Henry, with others making more than cameo appearances. They all lived exceptional, if not extraordinary, lives, in different ways.

The Presidency of John Quincy Adams by Mary W. Hargreaves

The Presidency of John Quincy Adams (American Presidency Series) by Mary W.M. Hargreaves

Historians have not been generous in judging the presidency of John Quincy Adams. Those who have most conspicuously upheld Adams’s fame have, at the same time, virtually ignored his service in the White House. Critics, on the other hand, have described his administration as a failure, founded upon “bargain and corruption” and marked by exclusion of the United States from the British West Indian trade, the ineffectiveness of its efforts to promote strong Pan-American relationships, and the enactment of the “tariff of abominations.” Some analysts have even argued that it generated the sectionalism which terminated the “Era of Good Feelings.”

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams’s destiny was foreordained. He was not only “The Greatest Traveler of His Age,” but his country’s most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy’s world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. As his diplomat father’s adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America’s own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington’s appointment, on his phenomenal work abroad, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage. But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848. In The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, Phyllis Lee Levin provides the deeply researched and beautifully written definitive biography of one of the most fascinating and towering early Americans.

The Best John Quincy Adams Book Lists Consulted

The Best Books of 2023 – Science Fiction And Fantasy (A Year-End List Aggregation)

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John Quincy Adams

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 3, 2019 | Original: October 27, 2009

John Quincy Adams began his diplomatic career as the U.S. minister to the Netherlands in 1794 and served as minister to Prussia during the presidential administration of his father, the formidable patriot John Adams. After serving in the Massachusetts State Senate and the U.S. Senate, the younger Adams rejoined diplomatic service under President James Madison, helping to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent (1814), which ended the War of 1812.

As secretary of state under James Monroe, Adams played a key role in determining the president’s foreign policy, including the famous Monroe Doctrine. John Quincy Adams went on to win the presidency in a highly contentious election in 1824 and served only one term. Outspoken in his opposition to slavery and in support of freedom of speech, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives in 1830; he would serve until his death in 1848.

John Quincy Adams, Son of John Adams

Born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts , John Quincy Adams was the second child and first son of John and Abigail Adams . As a young boy, John Quincy watched the famous Battle of Bunker Hill (June 1775) from a hilltop near the family farm with his mother. He accompanied his father on a diplomatic mission to France when he was 10, and would later study at European universities, eventually becoming fluent in seven languages. Adams returned to Massachusetts in 1785 and entered Harvard College, graduating two years later. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1790, after which he set up a law practice in Boston.

Did you know? In a study conducted in 2008, a fitness chain concluded that John Quincy Adams was the fittest president in American history, thanks to his habit of walking more than three miles daily and swimming in the Potomac River during his presidency.

As a young lawyer, Adams wrote articles defending the neutrality policy of George Washington ’s presidential administration regarding the war between France and Britain in 1793. In 1794, Washington appointed him as a U.S. minister to the Netherlands. After the elder John Adams was elected president in 1796, he made his son minister to Prussia (Germany).

Before leaving for Berlin, John Quincy Adams married Louisa Catherine Johnson, whom he met in London (she was the daughter of the American consul there). Tragically, the couple would suffer the loss of three children—a daughter in infancy and two sons in adulthood—and by some accounts, it was a largely unhappy match.

John Quincy Adams Returns to the U.S.

After John Adams lost the presidency to Thomas Jefferson in 1800, he recalled John Quincy from Europe; the younger Adams returned to Boston in 1801 and reopened his law practice. The following year he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, and in 1803 the state legislature chose him to serve in the U.S. Senate .

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Though Adams, like his father, was known as a member of the Federalist Party , once in Washington he voted against the Federalist Party line on several issues, including Jefferson’s ill-fated Embargo Act of 1807, which greatly harmed the interests of New England merchants. He soon became estranged from the Federalists and came to abhor party politics. Adams resigned his Senate seat in June 1808 and returned to Harvard, where he had been made a professor.

In 1809, President James Madison called Adams back into diplomatic service, appointing him ambassador to the Russian court of Czar Alexander I. While in St. Petersburg, Adams observed Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and later the withdrawal of the French army after that great conflict.

Meanwhile, war had broken out between the United States and Britain, and in 1814 Madison called Adams to Belgium in order to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent , which ended the War of 1812 . John Quincy Adams then began serving (like his father before him) as U.S. minister to Great Britain; his son, Charles Francis Adams, would go on to hold the same post during the American Civil War .

John Quincy Adams: From Diplomat to President

In 1817, President James Monroe named John Quincy Adams as his secretary of state, as part of his efforts to build a sectionally balanced cabinet. Adams achieved many diplomatic accomplishments in this post, including negotiating the joint occupation of Oregon with England and acquiring Florida from Spain. He also served as the chief architect of what became known as the Monroe Doctrine (1823), which aimed to prevent further European intervention or colonization in Latin America by asserting U.S. protection over the entire Western Hemisphere.

In 1824, Adams entered a five-way race for the presidency with two other members of Monroe’s cabinet–Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford—along with Henry Clay , then speaker of the House, and the military hero General Andrew Jackson .

Adams carried the New England states, most of New York and a few districts elsewhere, but finished behind Jackson (who won Pennsylvania, the Carolinas and most of the West) in both the electoral and popular votes. No candidate received a majority of electoral votes, and the election was decided by the House of Representatives . Speaker Clay threw his support behind Adams, who won the presidency and later named Clay as secretary of state. Jackson’s supporters raged against this “ corrupt bargain ,” and Jackson himself resigned from the Senate; he would again seek the presidency (successfully) in 1828.

John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States

As president, Adams faced steadfast hostility from the Jacksonians in Congress, which perhaps explained his relatively few substantive accomplishments while in the White House . He proposed a progressive national program, including federal funding of an interstate system of roads and canals and the creation of a national university. Critics, especially Jackson’s supporters, argued that such advancements exceeded federal authority according to the Constitution .

The Erie Canal was completed while Adams was in office, linking the Great Lakes to East Coast and enabling a flow of products such as grain, whiskey and farm produce to Eastern markets. Adams also sought to provide Native Americans with territory in the West, but like many of his initiatives, this failed to find support in Congress.

Up for reelection in 1828, Adams was hurt by accusations of corruption and criticism of his unpopular domestic program, among other issues; he lost badly to Jackson, who captured most of the southern and western votes. Adams became only the second president in U.S. history to fail to win a second term; the first had been his own father, in 1800.

Adams retired to private life in Massachusetts only briefly, winning election to the House of Representatives in 1830. He served as a leading congressman for the rest of his life, earning the nickname “Old Man Eloquent” for his passionate support of freedom of speech and universal education, and especially for his strong arguments against slavery , the “peculiar institution” that would tear the nation apart only decades later. After suffering two strokes, Adams died on February 23, 1848, at the age of 80.

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IMAGES

The Best Books To Learn About President John Quincy Adams
The Diaries of John Quincy Adams: A Digital Collection
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan
John Quincy Adams
The Diaries of John Quincy Adams 1779-1848: A Library of America Boxed
The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams

COMMENTS

The Best Biographies of John Quincy Adams
Best Biography of John Quincy Adams: " John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit " by James Traub. Honorable Mention: " John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life " by Paul Nagel. and " John Quincy Adams: A Personal History of an Independent Man " by Marie Hecht. Best "Beach Read" on JQA: " John Quincy Adams " by Harlow Unger.
The 10 Best Books on President John Quincy Adams
Essential Books on John Quincy Adams. There are numerous books on John Quincy Adams, and it comes with good reason, beyond being America's sixth President (1825-1829), he was a member of multiple political parties over the years, and also served as a diplomat, a Senator, and a member of the House of Representatives.
Amazon.com: John Quincy Adams: 9780306822650: Unger, Harlow Giles: Books
John Quincy Adams. Paperback - October 1, 2013. He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad.
John Quincy Adams
About John Quincy Adams. A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy Adams In this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy's long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic.
Books by John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams has 214 books on Goodreads with 3104 ratings. John Quincy Adams's most popular book is Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the B...
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary
This book is the biography of John Quincy Adams. It covers his complete life: born 1767; died 1848. Before reading this book, I, of course, knew that he was the sixth President of the United States (1825 - 1829) and the son of Abigail and John Adams, the second President of the United States.
Nation Builder
Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic is an intellectual biography rather than a full-dress life. Few presidents merit such treatment as much as Adams, who, through essays, speeches, letters and a diary kept meticulously over almost 70 years, left a remarkable record of a great mind at work on the prospects of the young, fragile nation…
John Quincy Adams
Books. John Quincy Adams. Harlow G. Unger. Da Capo Press, Sep 4, 2012 - Biography & Autobiography - 364 pages. He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the ...
'John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit,' by James Traub
Militant Spirit. By James Traub. 620 pp. Basic Books. $35. In June of 1775, when John Quincy Adams was almost 8 years old, his mother, the indomitable Abigail, took him by the hand up a peak in ...
The Best Books To Learn About President John Quincy Adams
The Best Book About John Quincy Adams (Appears on 7 Lists) John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life by Paul C. Nagel. Lists It Appears On: At Times Dull; ... This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS by Harlow Giles Unger
Raised for greatness by his parents John and Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams surpassed their expectations to become one of America's greatest and most courageous leaders. In this action-filled biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals John Quincy Adams as one of the towering figures during the nation's formative years ...
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams. John Quincy Adams ( / ˈkwɪnzi / ⓘ; [a] July 11, 1767 - February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, politician, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825.
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (born July 11, 1767, Braintree [now Quincy], Massachusetts [U.S.]—died February 23, 1848, Washington, D.C., U.S.) was the sixth president of the United States (1825-29) and eldest son of President John Adams. In his prepresidential years he was one of America's greatest diplomats (formulating, among other things, what ...
John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life
Paperback - April 15, 1999. by Paul C. Nagel (Author) 4.4 214 ratings. See all formats and editions. John Quincy Adams was raised, educated, and groomed to be President, following in the footsteps of his father, John. At fourteen he was secretary to the Minister to Russia and, later, was himself Minister to the Netherlands and Prussia.
John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger
Harlow Giles Unger's 2012 biography of John Quincy Adams sheds light on our sixth president in this well written, insightful history. ... "John Quncy Adams" as a result of a book-reading trade with a Goodreads friend. I had reviewed Fred Kaplan's 2015 biography, "John Quincy Adams: American Visionary" while my friend Jean had read Unger's book.
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was raised, educated, and groomed to be President, following in the footsteps of his father, John. At fourteen he was secretary to the Minister to Russia and, later, was himself Minister to the Netherlands and Prussia. He was U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and then President for one ill-fated term. His private life showed a parallel descent. He was a poet, writer, critic ...
John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life
Overall, however, "John Quincy Adams" proves a worthwhile read and a valuable source of new insight into JQA's personality. While this biography is not quite suitable as the "only" biography an interested fan of John Quincy Adams's should rely on, it makes an invaluable companion to other good biographies of JQA.
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary
This book is the biography of John Quincy Adams. It covers his complete life: born 1767; died 1848. Before reading this book, I, of course, knew that he was the sixth President of the United States (1825 - 1829) and the son of Abigail and John Adams, the second President of the United States. ...
‎John Quincy Adams on Apple Books
In this fresh and illuminating biography, Fred Kaplan, the acclaimed author of Lincoln, brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams—the little-known and much-misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams—and reveals how Adams' inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and ...
Amazon.com: John Quincy Adams: A Life from Beginning to End
John Quincy Adams: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of US Presidents) - Kindle edition by History, Hourly. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading John Quincy Adams: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of US Presidents).
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) served as the 6th U.S. president, from 1825 to 1829. He was the son of former president John Adams, a Founding Father. Quincy Adams was outspoken in his opposition to ...
Books by John Quincy Adams
Rate this book. Clear rating. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Vol. 11: Comprising Portions of His Diary From 1795 to 1848. by. John Quincy Adams. it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2009 — 41 editions.
John Quincy Adams: A Short Biography: Sixth President of the United
The thirty-fifth president, John F. Kennedy, wrote of his fellow Bostonian that he "held more important offices and participated in more important events than anyone in the history of our nation." Read about this great leader from early America by purchasing the book "John Quincy Adams: A Short Biography." 30-Minute Book Series

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The Best Biographies of John Quincy Adams

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The 10 Best Books on President John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life by Paul C. Nagel

Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

Nation Builder by Charles N. Edel

Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger

The Lost Founding Father by William J. Cooper

The Birth of Modern Politics by Lynn Hudson Parson

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin

John Quincy Adams by Robert V. Remini

Descent from Glory by Paul C. Nagel

John Quincy Adams

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The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

Every Valley

The First Emancipator

Light-Horse Harry Lee

Jacksonland

Mr. Jefferson’s Women

The Old Revolutionaries

Brothers at Arms

‘John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit,’ by James Traub

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The Best Books To Learn About President John Quincy Adams

The Best Book About John Quincy Adams (Appears on 7 Lists)

#2-3 Books (Appear on 4 Lists Each)

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

#4-5 (Appear on 3 Lists)

Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

#6-8 (Appear on 2 Lists)

The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams by Leonard L. Richards

John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy by Samuel Flagg Bemis

#9-24 (Appear on 1 List)

Amistad: A Novel by Alexs Pate

Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress by William Lee Miller

Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family by Paul C. Nagel

Diary of John Quincy Adams by John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams by Lynn H. Parsons

John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire by William Earl Weeks

John Quincy Adams and the Union by Samuel Flagg Bemis

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub

Letters Of John Quincy Adams, To His Son, On The Bible And Its Teachings by John Quincy Adams

Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams by William H. Seward

Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams by Margery M. Heffron

Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams by Josiah Quincy

The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters by Paul C. Nagel

The Presidency of John Quincy Adams by Mary W. Hargreaves

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin

The Best John Quincy Adams Book Lists Consulted

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