“To be good, and to do good,
is all we have to do.” — John Adams
John Adams by David McCullough (ISBN: 0-684-81363-7) provides a deep and broad look at the second president and a man who is often credited as being the voice of independence. The book starts just a little before John Adams was born, telling the reader about his parents and lineage before getting into the details of the future president’s life. McCullough tells the Founder’s life story in great detail, in part because Adams left extensive diaries and letters to draw from. One learns about his schooling, his law practice, his family life, his farm in Massachusetts, and his ascendency onto the national stage, where he flourished. One learns about his shortcomings as well, including a propensity to get down on himself, a willingness to let others’ opinions of him matter (vanity), and a sometimes quick temper. Once Adams makes to Philadelphia to advocate for independence, the book goes into great detail, explaining his thinking and his actions and then follows his career. He was a diplomat, helping Benjamin Franklin in France and forging his own path in the Netherlands, where he, on his own, secured loans to help the American cause as the Revolutionary War dragged on. He was the new country’s first ambassador to England and then the country’s first vice president. In all of his positions, he advocated for what he thought was right. He didn’t back down and wasn’t afraid to take a little heat sometimes. The book paints him as a man of strong moral convictions based on a faith in God. During his time as president, he successfully kept America out of a war with France, which greatly helped America, a weak and fledgling nation, find its wings.
I thought the book was masterfully written, which is not a surprise, considering it’s written by the author of another great work, 1776. I got to know John Adams quite well over the course of the book. His letters and diaries are woven tightly into explanatory prose. The book was well balanced, noting where Adams had personal and professional shortcomings or hiccoughs. Like most of us, life tended to knock off a few of the rough edges, and he grew and improved throughout his life. I was impressed by his strong sense of morality and how that guided him in all that he did. His role in America’s early years was grand, and he liked to think of himself as grand, but also realized that he was happiest when surrounded by a few good books and the daily labor of running a farm. He made the most of the opportunities presented to him, sacrificed time, money, and even his family for the callings he had, and left the world a better place.
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This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License and is copyrighted © MMXXI John Pruess. |
Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser (ISBN: 0-684-82291-1) provides a short overview of the original father of the country, George Washington. The book starts with an interesting discussion of modern history, which is history that often looks to break down the heroes of the past, find fault with them, and discount the stories that have been handed down for generations. Brookhiser claims he’s not looking to disparage Washington like other modern historians while being willing to set aside legend (“I cannot tell a lie,” for example) in order to give a clearer picture of the first president. The book then provides a basic overview of the major parts of Washington’s life, war, 
Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention May to September 1787 by Catherine Drinker Bowen (ISBN: 978-0-316-10378-7) takes an intimate look at the coming into being of the Constitution. The book starts by acknowledging that the Constitution is the result of a miracle. That is not necessarily the author’s conclusion — although it is; it is what those who attended the Constitutional Convention themselves asserted it to be. The case for that is then made by simply recounting the events of the convention and providing a detailed look at the circumstances surrounding the Constitution’s inception. Bowen relies heavily on James Madison’s notes since they were the most comprehensive, but also incorporates the notes and other writings of other Founding Fathers. The picture painted is thorough, deep, and intricate. The account focuses on the major arguments and compromises, which help show how the birth of the Constitution was a miracle. Many delegates wanted nothing to do with a federal government, some leaving early or protesting every vote. Slavery was famously a contentious issue. The nature of the executive branch and whether or not the legislative branch should be mono- or bicameral were fought over tenaciously by men who held deep-rooted positions based on experience or strong philosophical convictions. America itself, a newborn nation only eleven years old at the time of the convention, was already rapidly changing with internal and external forces influencing it course. Finally, once the Constitution was drafted, there was still a high chance of failure since the document had to be ratified, and there were still many convention delegates as well as everyday citizens who were strongly opposed to what the Constitution proposed. Ultimately, it was successfully ratified and has stood the test of time.
Finding God in the Gulag: A History of Christianity in the Soviet Penal System by Jeffrey S. Hardy (ISBN: 978-0-19-775167-1) is a book that gives readers a chance to know more about life in the Gulag. Unlike Solzhenitsyn’s based-on-a-true-story novel, this book is an academic look at Christianity in the Soviet camps from the earliest days under Lenin to the dying days of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev with a little post-script about a few things in the post-Soviet times. It catalogs both attempts by inmates to life and express their religions and attempts by the prison management to suppress religion. It was interesting to note that efforts to extinguish religion in prisoners was not uniform in the Soviet Union. It was more lax in some camps than in others. There wasn’t always a central policy that camp managers could look to, so they did it their own way. Sometimes that meant believers were beaten and spent time in solitary confinement. Sometimes that meant a Christian guard did nothing when a prisoner prayed or sang a hymn or made an icon. There was a short section on faith among thieves and other such common criminals, including a few paragraphs about the fascinating world of Russian prison tattoos. The book also catalogs people losing their faith, which was unsurprising, and one that is not judged neither by the author nor by most prisoners who are cited in the book. They tended to believe the camps were inhumane and that one should not be judged too harshly or even at all for what they did in the camps. There was also a little proselyting that happened in the labor camps. This was especially true of Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, but Orthodox and Catholic priests also preached and even baptized people. Toward the end of the Soviet regime, religion was sometimes encouraged because it generally had a good influence on prisoners and mediated their violent behavior.
He Walked the Americas: The Trail of the Prophet by L. Taylor Hansen (ISBN: 978-1-939149-19-0) is a compilation of stories from North and South American Indians that relate to a so-called white or pale prophet. The stories tell about the arrival of the prophet, his activities, and then his departure. The legends describe the man, usually as wearing white garments (most often with small crosses on the hem), having brown hair, usually a beard, wearing sandals, and usually with cross-shaped marks in his hands. Sometimes he was accompanied by other white men. Other times he organized churches, established temples, and called people to continue his teachings after his departure. The arrival is usually on a ship in the legends, but one of the stories recorded by the author noted that the mysterious white prophet’s ministry started with his appearance at the temple. The man’s activities while visiting the ancient Indians included preaching peace, ending human sacrifice, healing sick and otherwise afflicted people, and controlling the wind and water. The last two were kind of important in the legends because this god was often referred to as the feathered serpent. Wind was often represented by feathers and the water by the snake. The organization of churches, usually with twelve men called to be leaders and teachers, and the establishing of temples was the other main activity of this white prophet in the legends. The stories then tell of his departure, usually with the people mourning his leaving and eventually forgetting his teachings and reverting to war and human sacrifice.