![]() ![]() In one telling anecdote, John Adams demanded that the boy be admitted to Harvard as a junior or senior, given “his mastery of two classical and three modern languages, and his command of an enormous body of classical and modern literature, philosophy, and science.” The doting aside, Adams fils soon cut a political figure all his own, deftly serving as a diplomat and analyst of what today we would call geopolitics. In the early chapters, the author explores the difficult job of being first son to the Massachusetts first family. Unger’s bracing, readable text is a remedy. The longer answer is that American history is so badly taught these days that it seems surprising that anyone remembers Washington, much less Millard Fillmore. So why is he not better known? The short answer is that he didn’t trumpet his own accomplishments. On top of that, his father was the nation’s second president. He ate with Charles Dickens, ended the War of 1812, shaped the ever-so-slightly misnamed Monroe Doctrine, taught at Harvard, and was one of the most prominent abolitionist leaders in the years preceding the Civil War. ![]() John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), writes Unger ( American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution, 2011, etc.), bridged the years between George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. A neglected president receives his due as a statesman and practical politician. ![]()
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