The Portable John Adams (Penguin Classics)

Excellent price compared to Amazon's list price. Thank you Amazon for providing this internal competition!

This was so hard to read I didn't finish it. Was expecting more of a biography than a collection of letters.

Given that critique of John Adams' work requires specific reference to a particular work (which are available separately, thus lending themselves better to individual critique) and given that this collection leans heavily on being one of, if not THE most complete volume of Adams' work available, I'll limit myself to commentary on the quality of the collection itself. First, please note that for whatever reason (be they financial or size limitations, etc), the paper quality is wafer thin. In regular light (i.e., not under candlelight), you can read what is written on the reverse page with ease. While one may say that one gets what one pays for, given that this seems to be the only readily available volume that seems to collect all of Adams' work, Penguin Classics could have easily sprung for a heavier stock and charged extra. Furthermore, one should pay particular care to what the volume contains as it does not contain the complete letter correspondences between Adams and Abigail or between Adams and Jefferson. This entire collection is 576 pages, 40 of which are John Patrick Diggins' (editor) introduction, which given that he's listed as Adams' biographer makes sense. But, given that "My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams" letter collection is itself 528 pages and given that "The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams" letter collection is 690 pages, it is clear how much is left out. In fact, Diggins only devotes 70 some odd pages to the correspondence between John and Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson and just 70 pages to correspondence of John and Abigail. And in case anyone is wondering who are these "and others" that the book description mentions as being included in the collection, the "others" are Roger Sherman and John Taylor with just a little over 60 pages worth of letters. Personally, I'd rather have 60 pages worth of Adams' letters to Benjamin Rush. The description notes that the volume "gathers an impressive variety of his works" - well, if by variety you mean his most famous works heavily edited, then yes. But, I personally hardly think the variety is anything impressive. And the parts of his diary and autobiography mentioned account for only about 121 pages of the collection. Thus, in conclusion, if one seeks to have a volume that gathers, as the description notes, Adams' "most important political works: "A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law," "Thoughts on Government," "A Defense of Constitutions," "Novanglus," and "Discources in Davila."" - then yes, it does. But how much finer could this volume have been if only it got the treatment worth other founding fathers, especially given the wonderful volumes Library of America has produced for all the founding fathers (even Madison), except Adams. Here's hoping that will change. Otherwise, of course, John Adams' writings are most recommended given their longevity (e.g., Mass. Constitution) and applicability in today's fiery political environment.

I have the great opportunity to visit the burial place of John Adams and his son John Quincy in Quincy, Massachusetts. The two are buried in the basement of a fairly typical looking New England church; it’s rather inconspicuous, and I when I visited there were hardly any visitors there. I picked up this book in the gift shop and figured it would be a nice snapshot of some of Adams’s most important works. And while the book does give a nice presentation of Adams’s most important works (I’m thinking here of his Thoughts on Government, and his Defense of the Constitution) some of the editorial decisions taken to produce this book without any explanation left me confused.The main “gripe” I have is that the book is that it makes Adams’s anti-Roman Catholic views front and center for some reason. The book begins with a section of his diary entries and the very first entry is a discussion by Adams of the Catholic Church’s doctrine of “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” (“outside the Church there is no salvation”). And again they included a pamphlet written by Adams entitled “A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law” which claimed that the British imposition of taxes was reminiscent of ecclesiastical tyranny of the Middle Ages, and reads as a screed against Catholicism.No there is no doubt Adams held these beliefs, and many of the Founders were anti-Catholic (John Jay comes to mind). But I’m just a little confused by the editorial decision to make that such a fairly prominent part of this book. David McCullough discusses Adams’s views on Catholicism in his autobiography in a more nuanced fashion; discussion his and Washington’s visit to a Catholic church in Philadelphia. Even then, McCullough’s discussion of Adams’s views on Catholics is lite, especially compared to this book’s emphasis on it.The book does have a section in the introduction dedicated to Adams’s views on Christianity, but it is not very long.Overall it’s a good book if you want a snapshot of Adams’s thought, however I am left slightly confused by editorial intent.

Book arrived in very good condition. Thank you.