We all know about John Adams. A founding father, a signer and author of the Declaration of Independence, the second President of the United States, and his most famous role…he was married to Laura Linney! Oh, no, wait, that’s the mini-series. But anyway, John Adams was an amazing person.

Shockingly, his son might be considered even more amazing. John Quincy Adams does not get the publicity of his more famous father, but he has a resume that impresses. One of the youngest ambassadors in history, well learned and widely traveled, a constitutional law expert, a senator, a congressman, and of course a President. He was all of those things and more.

Harlow Unger, a renowned historian, wrote John Quincy Adams to share this amazing story. He is obviously a fan of Quincy and that’s okay. It works in this book. He doesn’t shy away from the shortcomings (John Quincy Adams was an ineffective President and perhaps not such a great parent), but he spends plenty of time looking at the lasting impact of the mans work. I like that — it focuses on the positive in a way that we need for history to be interesting.

This is a wonderful book that I really enjoyed. An interesting man who led an interesting life, it’s worth your time to read. You’ll see the themes in American politics that are still alive today: States rights versus Federal rights, international involvement versus isolationism, manifest destiny versus imperialism. Perhaps you will come away thinking the more things change the more they stay the same. I bet the father/son tandem of Adams and Adams felt the same way many times.