The Best Books To Learn About President John Quincy Adams
(You can view the rest of our presidential Best Book lists by going to our Best US President Books page, or for a more in-depth look at how we found and ranked the books you can visit our Best Book About Every United States President article.)
John Quincy Adams Quick Facts |
| President Number | 6 |
| Terms In Office | 1 |
| Years | 1825-1829 |
| Political Party | Democratic-Republican |
| Vice President | John C. Calhoun |
| Home State | Massachusetts |
| Presidential Pet | Silkworms & an Alligator |
| Articles Used in Ranking | 12 |
| Number of Unique Books | 24 |
Happy Scrolling!
The Best Book About John Quincy Adams
(Appears on 7 Lists)
John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life by Paul C. Nagel
Lists It Appears On:
- At Times Dull
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
- Mandi Lindner
- Presidential History
- Presidents USA
- The Tailored Man
February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.: Congressman John Quincy Adams, rising to speak, suddenly collapses at his desk; two days later, he dies in the Speaker’s chamber. The public mourning that followed, writes Paul C. Nagel, “exceeded anything previously seen in America.” Forgotten was his failed presidency and his often cold demeanor. It was the memory of an extraordinary human being–one who in his last years had fought heroically for the right of petition and against a war to expand slavery–that drew a grateful people to salute his coffin in the Capitol and to stand by the railroad tracks as his bier was transported from Washington to Boston. Nagel probes deeply into the psyche of this cantankerous, misanthropic, erudite, hardworking son of a former president whose remarkable career spanned many offices: minister to Holland, Russia, and England, U.S. senator, secretary of state, president of the United States (1825-1829), and, finally, U.S. representative (the only ex-president to serve in the House). On the basis of a thorough study of Adams’ seventy-year diary, among a host of other documents, the author gives us a richer account than we have yet had of JQA’s life–his passionate marriage to Louisa Johnson, his personal tragedies (two sons lost to alcoholism), his brilliant diplomacy, his recurring depression, his exasperating behavior–and shows us why, in the end, only Abraham Lincoln’s death evoked a greater outpouring of national sorrow in nineteenth-century America. We come to see how much Adams disliked politics and hoped for more from life than high office; how he sought distinction in literary and scientific endeavors, and drew his greatest pleasure from being a poet, critic, translator, essayist, botanist, and professor of oratory at Harvard; how tension between the public and private Adams vexed his life; and how his frustrations kept him masked and aloof (and unpopular). Nagel’s great achievement, in this first biography of America’s sixth president in a quarter century, is finally to portray Adams in all his talent and complexity.
#2-3 Books
(Appear on 4 Lists Each)
John Quincy Adams by Robert V. Remini
Lists It Appears On:
- All The Presidents Books
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
- The Washington Post
Chosen president by the House of Representatives after an inconclusive election against Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams often failed to mesh with the ethos of his era, pushing unsuccessfully for a strong, consolidated national government. Historian Robert V. Remini recounts how in the years before his presidency Adams was a shrewd, influential diplomat, and later, as a dynamic secretary of state under President James Monroe, he solidified many basic aspects of American foreign policy, including the Monroe Doctrine.
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
- Mashable
- Presidents USA
In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams—the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams—and persuasively demonstrates how Adams’s inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.
#4-5
(Appear on 3 Lists)
John Quincy Adams by Harlow Unger
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
- Presidents USA
He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president.
Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
- Presidents USA
Following his single term as President of the United States (1825–1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor’s inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done (the only two presidents ever to do so). Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the “incubus of Jacksonianism.” It was the opening chapter in what was arguably the most remarkable post-presidency in American history.
#6-8
(Appear on 2 Lists)
John Quincy Adams: A Personal History of an Independent Man by Marie Hecht
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams by Leonard L. Richards
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
Richards’ study presents not only a vivid portrait of John Quincy Adams but also provides an insightful exploration of American politics in the 1830s and 40s. Examining one of the few presidents who sustained a political career after his term in the White House, Richards depicts how two years after losing the presidential election to Andrew Jackson, Adams ran for the House of Representatives and served there until his death seventeen years later.
John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy by Samuel Flagg Bemis
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Presidential Bios
- Library of Congress
#9-24
(Appear on 1 List)
American Phoenix: John Quincy and Louisa Adams, the War of 1812, and the Exile that Saved American Independence by Jane Hampton Cook
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
American Phoenix is the sweeping, riveting tale of a grand historic adventure across forbidding oceans and frozen tundra—from the bustling ports and towering birches of Boston to the remote reaches of pre-Soviet Russia, from an exile in arctic St. Petersburg to resurrection and reunion among the gardens of Paris. Upon these varied landscapes this Adams and his Eve must find a way to transform their banishment into America’s salvation.
Amistad: A Novel by Alexs Pate
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
Based on the true story of the 1839 mutiny on board the Spanish slave ship, Amistad, here is the frightening sequence of events that led fifty-three young men and women – and one young nation – to seek freedom and justice for all people. Amistad is the story of Cinque, the illegally enslaved son of a Mende chief who led an uprising full of fury and courage. It is also the story of John Quincy Adams, the former American president, who reluctantly heeded the call to justice and defended Cinque in a Supreme Court trial that would alter the nation’s history. And it is the story of men and women searching to find truth and to uphold the basic tenets of the American Constitution. Brilliantly narrated by award-winning novelist Alexs Pate, Amistad celebrates the human spirit’s profound determination to fight, hope, and to be free. Visit the “Amistad” book site! A junior novelization is also available for young adults.
Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress by William Lee Miller
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
In the 1830s slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a “gag rule” to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring “the peculiar institution” into the national debate, a battle that some historians have called “the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy.” The campaign to make slavery officially and respectably debatable was waged by John Quincy Adams who spent nine years defying gags, accusations of treason, and assassination threats. In the end he made his case through a combination of cunning and sheer endurance. Telling this story with a brilliant command of detail, Arguing About Slaveryendows history with majestic sweep, heroism, and moral weight.
Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family by Paul C. Nagel
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
There has never been any doubt that the Adams family was America’s first family in our politics and memory. This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks.
Diary of John Quincy Adams by John Quincy Adams
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
This 586 page book is a compilation of the original 12 volumes published between 1874-1877 by Charles Francis Adams. Allan Nevins has been able to select from the “Memoirs” that matter which is most important and of the greatest permanent worth. He” has given emphasis to the material which throws light on the social background of the period, on John Quincy Adams’ character, and on the more dramatic political and diplomatic events of the time. Thus, in 600 pages, he has presented nearly everything from the Diary that the general reader and ordinary student will want.”
John Quincy Adams by Lynn H. Parsons
Lists It Appears On:
- Library of Congress
The 1828 presidential election, which pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams, has long been hailed as a watershed moment in American political history. It was the contest in which an unlettered, hot-tempered southwestern frontiersman, trumpeted by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, soundly defeated a New England “aristocrat” whose education and political résumé were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life. It was, many historians have argued, the country’s first truly democratic presidential election. It was also the election that opened a Pandora’s box of campaign tactics, including coordinated media, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund-raising, organized rallies, opinion polling, campaign paraphernalia, ethnic voting blocs, “opposition research,” and smear tactics.
John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire by William Earl Weeks
Lists It Appears On:
- Library of Congress
This is the story of a man, a treaty, and a nation. The man was John Quincy Adams, regarded by most historians as America’s greatest secretary of state. The treaty was the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819, of which Adams was the architect. It acquired Florida for the young United States, secured a western boundary extending to the Pacific, and bolstered the nation’s position internationally. As William Weeks persuasively argues, the document also represented the first determined step in the creation of an American global empire.
John Quincy Adams and the Union by Samuel Flagg Bemis
Lists It Appears On:
- Library of Congress
John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
John Quincy Adams was the last of his kind—a Puritan from the age of the Founders who despised party and compromise, yet dedicated himself to politics and government. The son of John Adams, he was a brilliant ambassador and secretary of state, a frustrated president at a historic turning point in American politics, and a dedicated congressman who literally died in office—at the age of 80, in the House of Representatives, in the midst of an impassioned political debate.
Letters Of John Quincy Adams, To His Son, On The Bible And Its Teachings by John Quincy Adams
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams by William H. Seward
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Presidential Bios
HENRY ADAMS the founder of the Adams family in America fled from ecclesiastical oppression in England and joined the Colony at a very early period but at what precise time is not recorded.
Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams by Margery M. Heffron
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife and political partner of John Quincy Adams, became one of the most widely known women in America when her husband assumed office as sixth president in 1825. Shrewd, intellectual, and articulate, she was close to the center of American power over many decades, and extensive archives reveal her as an unparalleled observer of the politics, personalities, and issues of her day. Louisa left behind a trove of journals, essays, letters, and other writings, yet no biographer has mined these riches until now. Margery Heffron brings Louisa out of the shadows at last to offer the first full and nuanced portrait of an extraordinary first lady.
Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams by Josiah Quincy
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
The ensuing Memoir comprises the most important events in the life of a statesman second to none of his contemporaries in laborious and faithful devotion to the service of his country. The light attempted to be thrown on his course has been derived from personal acquaintance, from his public works, and from authentic unpublished materials. The chief endeavor has been to render him the expositor of his own motives, principles, and character, without fear or favor,—in the spirit neither of criticism or eulogy.
The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters by Paul C. Nagel
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidents USA
From his vast storehouse of knowledge about the Adams family. Nagelpulls out the feminine threads of that tapestry to write all about the Adams women, from Abigail to daughter Nabby, from Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy, to Clover Adams, wife of Henry, with others making more than cameo appearances. They all lived exceptional, if not extraordinary, lives, in different ways.
The Presidency of John Quincy Adams by Mary W. Hargreaves
Lists It Appears On:
- Library of Congress
Historians have not been generous in judging the presidency of John Quincy Adams. Those who have most conspicuously upheld Adams’s fame have, at the same time, virtually ignored his service in the White House. Critics, on the other hand, have described his administration as a failure, founded upon “bargain and corruption” and marked by exclusion of the United States from the British West Indian trade, the ineffectiveness of its efforts to promote strong Pan-American relationships, and the enactment of the “tariff of abominations.” Some analysts have even argued that it generated the sectionalism which terminated the “Era of Good Feelings.”
The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin
Lists It Appears On:
- Presidential History
A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams’s destiny was foreordained. He was not only “The Greatest Traveler of His Age,” but his country’s most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy’s world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. As his diplomat father’s adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America’s own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington’s appointment, on his phenomenal work abroad, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage. But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848. In The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, Phyllis Lee Levin provides the deeply researched and beautifully written definitive biography of one of the most fascinating and towering early Americans.
The Best John Quincy Adams Book Lists Consulted
| Source | Article |
| All The Presidents Books | One Through Forty-Two or Forty-Three |
| At Times Dull | Janet’s Presidential Biography Project & Blog |
| Best Presidential Bios | The Best Presidential Biographies |
| Huffington Post | Presidents’ Day History: The Must-Reads Of Presidential Biographies |
| Library of Congress | Selected Bibliography |
| Mandi Lindner | 44 Presidents and Their Definitive Biographies |
| Mashable | Why I’m spending a year reading about every U.S. president |
| Presidential History | Presidential Resources |
| Presidential History (Again) | Pulitzer Prize Winning Books About Presidents |
| Presidents USA | FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS |
| The Tailored Man | The 44 Best Presidential Biographies |
| The Washington Post | The Fix’s list of best presidential biographies |
