✨ Featured Offer
Used, Very Good
$7.63
List Price: $42.00
🚚
See all 5 offers from $6.59 FREE standard delivery by: 29 Mar 2026
Overview
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. James Grantis the editor ofGrant's Interest Rate Observerand the author of four books on finance and financial history, includingMoney of the MindandMinding Mister Market. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Patricia Kavanagh, and their four children. 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, was America's premier junk-bond salesman. And though raised as 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 multifaceted portrait of Adams to date. Chronicling Adams's life—from his beginnings on a hardscrabble Massachusetts farm to the Continental Congress, 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. "In this urbane, gracefully written biography, James Grant wages the kind of tough, uphill battle that his tough-minded subject would appreciate, acknowledging Adams's weaknesses and character flaws, appraising his political blunders coolly but in the end leaving the reader with a richer appreciation of the Adams that Abigail and Jefferson saw, a man of firm principles who, for most of his very long life, labored tirelessly for the country-in-the-making whose future he never doubted, even when those around him wavered and trembled. Mr. Grant, the editor ofGrant's Interest Rate Observerand the author of several books on finance and financial history, has a sharp eye for the subtleties and contradictions that made Adams a b
| ISBN-13 | 9780374530235 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0374530238 |
| Weight | 1.50 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 5.75 x 1.50 x 8.75 In |
| List Price | $42.00 |
| Edition | 1st Edition |
| Format | - |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 544 pages |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Published On | 2006-02-21 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
Used, Good
Seller details
Zoom Books East
Glendale Heights, IL, USA
Book is in very good condition and may include minimal underlining highlighting. The book can also i...
Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026
✨ Used, Very Good
Seller details
The Maryland Book Bank
baltimore, MD, USA
Used-Very Good.
Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026
Used, Very Good
Seller details
HPB-Diamond
Dallas, TX, USA
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and ...
Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Braintree Book Rack
Cohasset, MA, USA
544 pages.
Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026
Used, Very Good
Seller details
HPB Inc.
Dallas, TX, USA
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and ...
Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026