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Passionate Sage
- The Character and Legacy of John Adams
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Critic Reviews
"Parker narrates this intellectual tour de force with strength and wit. His unvoiced reading matches the text wonderfully. His reading present the complexity of thought clearly." ( Kliatt)
"Capture[s] the man's appealing spirit, providing new perspective on an unfairly neglected Founding Father." ( Kirkus Reviews)
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What listeners say about Passionate Sage
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Neil
- 10-24-09
Stays true to Audible's description
This book is more an analysis and description of the political mind of John Adams, as opposed to a personal biography of the man. This is a recommended read if what you seek is an understanding of how he thought and what his views on the issues were. Factual details are not the emphasis. Diary entries, private correspondence, essays and the voluminous notes he left in the margins of books he read form the basis of Ellis's perspective. The lengthy chapter describing Adams' letter exchange with Thomas Jefferson is riveting, but apart from that I found other chapters to be mostly too dry and academic for my purposes in buying this audiobook. Still, I plodded through it and am glad I did since Adams is among the most admirable of our founding fathers.
13 people found this helpful
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- DM
- 03-11-21
loved it! great man
I feel every book I read about a founding father is the best book ever. even this guy. he had his faults but still turned out to be amazing. enjoyed learning more about him after his presidency.
Seriously underrated as a revolutionary hero, as a man, as president.
Way more forward thinking than maybe anyone else's in his time.
Needs lots more time and pages dedicated to him.
4 people found this helpful
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- Tim
- 05-04-21
Author does not like John Adams
Usually when you read a biography, the author LOVES the subject and you have to discount their claims and tone. Ellis does not like John Adams. It's a bit disconcerting but the overall content is stellar.
John Adams was a vain and difficult man, but no more so than any other world changer. His overall temperament was judicious. Ellis makes him seem like a maniac.
3 people found this helpful
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- Chuck B.
- 07-06-16
The Legacy of John Adams
An indelible portrait of this magnificent Patriot and Founding Father. More than a biography, Ellis gives us a glimpse of the man with all of his foibles and his greatness, of not just what he thought but the core beliefs behind what he thought and what shaped him. And Tom Parker's narration is perfect in every sense. Highly recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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- John
- 09-04-21
The Revolutionary Generation’s Supreme Realist
It’s impossible to choose a favorite Founder. Much like the balanced government they established, each man seems to act as a check and corrective on the intellectual excesses and spiritual shortcomings of his fellows, making it hard to subscribe fully to any single Founder’s views. Still, if forced to choose, I’d select John Adams, and Joseph Ellis, with his typical penetrating insights and lucid style, presents a vivid exposition of the reasons why.
Focusing on the last quarter century of Adams’ long life, we see him wrestling with his bitterness at electoral defeat, defending his record in interminable newspaper articles, arguing with authors in the margins of their books, and mending fences with former friends and political opponents, Thomas Jefferson being only the most famous.
Reasons why I’d select the dumpy, grumpy sage of Quincy as Favorite Founder are most apparent in the marginalia and correspondence. On the French Revolution and it’s Jeffersonian enthusiasts:
“Amidst all the exultations, Americans and Frenchmen should remember that the perfectibility of man is only human and terrestrial perfectibility...disease and vice will continue to disorder, and death to terrify mankind.”
Or, on the true motivation behind our drive for wealth and power:
“In this, ‘who will love me then?’ there is a key to the human heart, to the history of human life and manners, and to the rise and fall of empires.”
Adams’ scattershot, somewhat volcanic literary style—the byproduct of his passionate yet less-than-systematic thinking—means that his ideas are sometimes better summarized by Ellis:
“As Adams saw it, political theory of the grandiose sort was invariable ‘ideology’, an organized collection of seductive hopes and wishes, a systematic way of going wrong with confidence…theoretical wisdom, and therefore a contradiction in terms.”
“Adams was the supreme political realist of the revolutionary generation. His lifelong habit of mistrusting himself effectively immunized him against illusory solutions to the problems of political power…”
So, turning a half-blind eye to his painfully hypersensitive nature, sometimes ungovernable temper, and strident anti-Catholic bigotry, I embrace his intellectual ebullience, his engrained skepticism of fashionable thinking, his courage to make the right decision regardless of the political price tag, and his faith that history—in other words, that you and I—would eventually recognize that he was right. And in so many cases, he is.
A measure of the book’s many excellences is the fact that, despite a rather timeworn (1995) recording, I listened without really noticing. The writing, the subject, the insights presented, and a superb performance by Tom Parker (aka Grover Gardener) overrode all mere technical issues.
1 person found this helpful
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- Rick Reed
- 01-22-21
Irascible, Honest, Brilliant- JA =#1
My favorite Founding Father. Joseph Ellis digs deep into the English language to bring John Adams to life
1 person found this helpful
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- Tom Parks
- 06-15-22
John Adams was a Titan
Few, if any, people have contributed more integrity or substance to the founding of America; to its ideals, dreams, and direction.
Often overshadowed by Jefferson and Washington, Adams was an amazing man, husband, father, diplomat, philosopher, and many othet things. He, in many ways, was the 3rd term of Washington, continuing with many of policies.
Adams was "always and honest man, often a great one, but sometimes absolutely mad" according to Jefferson and Franklin. I believe the maddening thing about him was his immovable commitment to doing what he thought was right.
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- Chuck Farley
- 04-25-22
Diversity - Not a new concept.
Adams epitomizes what it really means to be a progressive conservative. it is almost scary how clearly he saw the struggles we would face and still have to face as a nation.
Some of the most successful progressive / liberal presidents claimed Jeffersonian ideals for political expediency, but utilized the principles of John Adams to govern.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-08-21
Adams Memorial Monument must come alive in order t
Wow what a gifted man for all to honor and study for centuries to come
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- Betsy Fowler
- 11-20-21
The legacy of John Adams--more relevant than ever
This beautifully written analysis of Adams's contribution has much greater relevance today than author Joseph J. Ellis may have realized when it was written. Now that our democracy and our republic have come under existential threat, and the inevitable decline of our nation (which Adams foresaw) is evident, this is well worth reading.