John Adams
David McCullough
I don't really want to to write about John Adams right now. I read this biography about 4 months ago, so I don't have the immediate recall of the issues and ideas I'd like to have to write anything resembling a 'book report', but I can say that the experience of reading about Adams, and perhaps more so, the times he lived in, had a deep effect on me.
David McCullough is an excellent historical writer. He makes you feel like you're reading newspapers and listening to lectures, not plowing through a list of dates and inevitable progressions of events. It reminds me of a general idea I gleaned from A People's History - that nothing that occurs in human history is inevitable (with the notable exception of our self destruction, it would seem) - that every moment is a choice. There may be very few people with any power to make a choice, or there may be millions, but there's always an opportunity to choose a path. That's not a moral judgement, simply a recognition that we can't hide behind the choices our predecessors have made, blaming them for the future we create. While our experience is of course shaped by the past, it doesn't predetermine what we choose to do with the present.
I like Adams. Rather, I respect him for his consistency and tenacity. He loved freedom. He deserves to be thought of well. He made some striking errors in judgement, and they were rightfully resisted and overcome. But he did it not in a spirit of arrogance, but out of a genuine desire and effort to serve the republic. I wonder how I will recall the work of George W. Bush when I'm an old man. I'll probably have more grace for him. I will have forgotten my youth somewhat. And I will have forgotten the details of his crimes, assuming their not written down very often. We seem to do that, not 'dwell' on the bad acts of former leaders, so as not to be divisive. Which I think is a major cop out, and succeeds in teaching our kids that only poor, unknown people do truly bad things. When poor people do evil it's a crime - when rich people do evil it's a difference of opinion. (Killing one person is a sin and a capital crime - killing 10,000 is debatable political policy.)
On to Jefferson...
