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John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty

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John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty as a co-winner of the 1999 Best First Book awad from the Foundaions of Political Theoy section of the American Political Science Associatio. The award citation reads as follows: "In John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty, C. Bradley Thompson offers us a thoughtful and compelling revisionist account of Adams's politics and political theory. Thompson begins by showing how Adams's critical rethinking of Calvinism led him to reject it in favor of a Lockean conception of the problem of liberty, social order and political authority. The question of politics and government, then for Adams, was how to protect the natural liberty and rights to which each freeman is entitled through constitutional arrangements that are the work of philosophy, reason, and free will rather than grounded in tradition and common law. By posing the problem in this fashion, Thompson argues, Adams developed the most systematic science of politics of all early American political thinkers. This science of politics is grounded in Baconian principles of science, the lessons of history, and a science of human nature. From these foundations it is possible to identify the distinctive requirements of modern (vs. classical republicanism) and the imperatives and principles of political architecture. In the process, Thompson demonstrates that Adams's prescription for political life was both complex and original. Rejecting both direct democracy and classical republicanism, Adams opted for a republican constitution that would constrain and elevate the passions excited by commercial society. Indeed, it was Adams's belief that a properly constituted public sphere would help cultivate the kind of modest virtues among citizens that were preferable to the vaunted glory of classical antiquity. In demonstrating the complexity and depth of John Adams's politics and political thought, Bradley Thompson provides us with a cogent argument for reconsidering Adams's place in the Founding period and the relevance of his thought for contemporary politics."

I just finished reading C. Bradley Thompson's "John Adams and The Spirit of Liberty," and am in awe; not only of John Adams but of Dr. Thompson's masterful explication of Adams' political thought.

I had no idea what a debt of gratitude I owed to one man, John Adams, who more than any other Founding Father developed and provided the intellectual framework that became the Constitution of the United States. At the very least this book should be required reading for any person who is interested in pursuing a career in politics.

To all of you who are interested in understanding the intellectual founding of this country I urge you to read this book. You won't be able to put it down.

And to C. Bradley Thompson, I salute you and thank you for your efforts in resurrecting the reputation and honor of this great man.

In the company of Jefferson, Madison, and Washington, John Adams' significant contribution to American political and intellectual life is often overlooked. This well-written, thoroughly engaging text seeks to put Adams in his rightful place among the Founders of our great nation. Professor Thompson provides a thorough analysis of the development of Adams' political thought: his early philosophical and religious thinking, his revolutionary writings (including the brilliant "Novanglus" pamphlets), and the mature thought of Adams the statesman. Readers will finish this book with a profound awareness of the unique philosophical revolution which fueled the American Revolution, and they will come to appreciate that Adams was (like the author) a brilliant mind. As a former student of Thompson's, I thoroughly appreciate this book.

To return America to its original foundation of freedom and individual rights, it is vital that we know the ideas of the men who created that system. This important task will be easier thanks to this book by C. Bradley Thompson. Readers interested in the Founding period and its legacy for our own time will not want to miss this book.

The most critical period of American history actually occurred after the revolution. The instability of anarchy threatened to make the ideas expressed in Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and the heroic successes of Washington nothing more than a forgotten dream. Another hero, one who would be willing to chronicle all previous forms of government and guide the architects of the constitution in creating something entirely new was what was needed. He was more than just another name on the list of American presidents. That hero was John Adams.
Thank you, C. Bradley Thompson, for this inspirational account of an often overlooked and undervalued intellectual giant among the American John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty by C. Bradley Thompson
founders.

Enjoy one of the biographies of John Adams, then read this superb book to complete the story of this great man. Mr. Thompson is a fine writer and can be seen on an old CSPAN segment giving a lecture on Adams. His grasp of President Adams's work and his ability to explain it are unmatched.

I've been trying to learn more about the founding fathers of our great nation and most books are quite negative about John Adams. This book is not only fair and balanced about Mr. Adams, it also opened my eyes to John Adams' book that most people have never studied or heard about. I have put that book, "A defence of the Constitutions of Government of the USA", on my amazon wishlist and I am looking forward to diving into it next. I think that is the true sign of a great book and author, one who makes you want to study deeper into the subject matter. In summary, a great book, not easy to read, but an entertaining look into a misunderstood president.

I am floored! I started reading biographies of John Adams after the musical "1776" piqued my interest in him and have absorbed at least 20 of them since then. I don't know how this 1998 title flew underneath my radar until 2004 but it did ... and I think NOW, after the 2004 election, is the time when every American needs to know what he did for us ... or TRIED to ... including: pointing the way for those of us who CAN to start doing something about the mess we're in now. His insistence on basing our government structure on actual human nature instead of a fantasized ideal of how human nature ought to be may be the only reason we've lasted even this long. Communism went down because it flew in the face of this wisdom. We could be next. Thompson shows that Adams was not only a political theorist, he was a scientifically oriented psychologist. So am I. And I know that he had a handle on psychological reality that exceeds what most modern psychological theorists can lay claim to. He was an Adlerian more than a century before Adler was a gleam in his father's eye. May ALL the Gods bless C. B. Thompson for what he has done ... and may his publisher start doing a better job of getting this book before the public.