John Quincy Adams: American Visionary

Widely considered the nation’s greatest secretary of state and its most experienced diplomat, Adams was a member of the House and Senate, President for one term, and one of only two chief executives to return to Congress (the other being Andrew Johnson). Kaplan—an experienced biographer of Carlyle, Dickens, Vidal, Twain, and Lincoln—follows a long line of Adams biographers trying to capture this complex, difficult, multifaceted figure , and he does well enough: while there’s not much new here, Kaplan, unlike most previous Adams biographers, devotes much attention to the man’s private life and interests, especially to his poetry, which Adams wrote all his life and to which Kaplan brings unique attention. But what makes Adams of major historical importance remains his unprecedented experience as an American in Europe, his co-authorship of the Monroe Doctrine, and his brilliant late-life battle in the House against slavery. A full-life biography such as this should give those achievements full prominence, something that is lacking here. That said, Kaplan’s work is an estimable study of a significant American life and very much up to the level of his earlier books. (May)