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American history, book reviews, Harlow Unger, John Quincy Adams, presidential biographies, Presidents
“John Quincy Adams” is author and historian Harlow Unger’s most recently published biography. Among his nearly two dozen books, Unger has authored biographies of James Monroe, John Hancock, Lafayette, Patrick Henry and Noah Webster. His latest work, on George Washington and the creation of the presidency, will be published in the next few weeks.
Unger’s “John Quincy Adams” is an interesting and fast-paced – but not exhaustive – biography of our sixth president. Clocking in at just over 300 pages, Unger’s book covers a tremendous amount of ground in a short amount of time. In contrast to Joseph Wheelan’s biography of John Quincy (which devotes three-quarters of its pages to John Quincy’s post-presidential years), Unger reserves that much of his book for Adams’s pre-presidency.
And although this book is nominally focused on John Quincy Adams, in its early chapters it often seems as much a book about John Quincy’s parents, John and Abigail Adams, as anyone else. Reading further, I was provided such a liberal (and useful) dose of historical context that I almost concluded this is not a biography at all, but is instead an efficiently drafted synopsis of early American history. Consistent with the other biographies of John Quincy, however, Unger’s book reserves just twenty or so pages for the sixth president’s single term in office.
Despite the apparent complexity of describing any president’s time as the nation’s chief executive, no author seems to need more than two-dozen pages to describe the heartbreak, disappointment and failure John Quincy endured between 1825 and 1829 while occupying the White House. In Unger’s case, however, he not only manages to rapidly describe Adams’s four disappointing years in the presidency, but also manages to forensically diagnose Adams’s failure with particular precision.
For all of the book’s merits, however, it is far from perfect. The rapid pace is useful for a reader wishing to cover significant ground quickly, but in order to maintain the dash-through-history Unger is forced to ignore innumerable details, complexities and nuances. Rough edges of history are smoothed over and thus appear far more polished than they really are, and when an important event requires several paragraphs to adequately explain, the author often finds a way to compress the episode into a sentence or two. This is convenient for the time-challenged reader, but a bit unfortunate for everyone else.
For any fan of presidential history, John Quincy Adams’s life proves uniquely captivating in many ways – despite his unproductive and uninspiring presidency – and Unger does a good job capturing much of this excitement. His biography covers a great deal of ground and provides an impressive amount of historical context. Unfortunately, the reader misses interesting (and sometimes important) granularity and forgoes the opportunity embrace the essence of John Quincy himself. As an impressively broad, but not deep, overview of early American history and of John Quincy’s entire life, Unger’s book is quite successful. As a thorough biography of John Quincy Adams – both the public and the private man – this book falls short.
Overall rating: 3¾ stars
My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies 
I really enjoyed this biography. To your point, the early pages did spend a lot of time on John and Abigail Adams, and I felt like I was getting a repeat from my earlier read of the elder Adams. The book shined at the end in describing his post-Presidential years, and the whole time I was wondering why JQA does not have a more prominent place in history. Perhaps his failed Presidency overshadows the influence he had in Congress, but these events–along with his exciting upbringing and his political influence prior to his Presidency–made for one of the most interesting biographical sketches I have read. I see now why you say his life was made for a movie (or something to that extent), the story came to life for the triumphs he had in later years as a man ahead of his time.
Having read this, I will likely read more into his time in Congress in the future, as that time alone made this book worth the investment. It looks like based on your readings, Wheelan’s biography may be a good choice for more details in that era of his life. Overall, an excellent biography and I would highly recommend to anyone looking for the enormous influence of this lesser known President.
Thanks very much for your thorough comments. I really enjoyed reading about JQA (could you tell?!?) who surprised me – in a good way – more than any other president I’ve read so far other than Andrew Jackson. AJ surprised me at how gifted a politician he was despite his lack of sophistication and polish. But John Quincy makes the most fascinating (and probably brilliant) under-rated president I’ve read about so far. And I do think you’ll really enjoy Wheelan’s account of his “retirement” years. I was amazed at how active and influential he remained and most biographies of surrounding presidents don’t give his time in Congress much attention or notice.
I actually preferred Unger’s biography of JQA to Nagel’s. I read Unger’s book first and loved it, though I knew that it was probably too short, too concise, too breezy. Indeed, that seemed to be the primary criticism every reviewer leveled at it. But then I read Nagel’s biography. Although Nagel’s is probably the most complete, full-length, single-volume modern life of JQA, I still preferred Unger’s book. I liked Unger’s historical context, and if, at times, it seemed excessive, I preferred it to Nagel’s, which was so minimal. Also, Nagel’s bio is hindered by taking place almost exclusively within JQA’s own head, and despite the subtitle (A Public Life, A Private Life), I thought Nagel went too heavy on the private life, and the book seemed padded in places. Nagel’s is still a great book, and he does go into needed detail in areas where Unger gives lip service, but I would rank Unger’s as my go-to bio for JQA.
Side note: Like you, I am on an adventure to read at least one bio of each US president (sometimes two, sometimes as many as I like, depending on how much the president interests me). So far, JQA is my favorite, or at least the one with whom I most identify. Keep up the good work! I love your blog!