I typed something like this yesterday, but it didn't come up on the blog. I hope that this one will. When I finished typing it, it was only half there, so I hope all goes well this time.
I have read the first section of John Adams. I was so excited when I found out that I would get to read this book, because he is one of the founding fathers that I have admired for a long while. The first part of the book was about his young life, his education and early career. It also covered when he met and married Abigail. I found it interesting about how much he enjoyed study. I also enjoyed the fact that he was a schoolteacher for a time in order to pay for his internship as a lawyer. It didn't sound like he was a very good teacher, but he seems to have been an outstanding lawyer. As he began his practice, it seems like he became the premier lawyer in the New England area. All the while he always said that he would like to stay at home and be a farmer on the farm that the Adam's had owned for many years.
When he met Abigail, it didn't seem like he liked her very much, but theirs seems to be one of the great married romances of the early founders of our country. A large portion of the book is excepts of letters between John and Abigail. They seemed to have many, many children.
The second half of the first part of the book is about the time leading up to the Declaration of Independence. This part was I enjoyed very much. One of my favorite movies is 1776. When my children were growing up, we watched it every 4th of July, in the hopes that they would get a better understanding of what it took to get our country started. This part of the book covers the same time period and a good number of the quotes were also in the movie. It was interesting comparing the two. It also helped my to visualize what was happening, and what the people looked like from the movie. The book filled out a number of questions I had about that time, and helped me to better appreciate some of the people that were members of Congress at that time. In the movie, John Dickensen, was almost an antagonist, but it helped me to have a better understanding of his part in the process and what he did as I read the book. I was also under the impression, from the movie, that John Adams wasn't liked very well, but the book clarifies that he was very liked and looked up to. That it was he who thought he was not liked.
The book also gives many interesting accounts of the war, and all of the things that General Washington had to go through. How many times he lost. How he had no money from Congress, and had a hard time getting and keeping a malitia, until they finally won the one small battle with General Howe. That was enough to get the peoples spirits up again. Finally, they had to go to France and ask for some financial help. Along with Ben Franklin, Adams was asked to go on this mission. He had to leave in the middle of winter, at night, with British ships all over to go to France.
I am looking forward to the second part.
