So this book was not as much of a slog as I feared it was going to be! Kaplan claims his major intervention is the focus on Adams as a writer, which I guess I'll grant him--I'm not familiar enough with Adams historiography to argue otherwise, though I think Kaplan kind of over-stretches it with "writer"--like yes, he's an able and determined diarist, but only a few of his public speeches are excerpted at any real length? (I may also find this argument less moving since we've done this 'x person the WRITER' theme practically to death in Lincoln studies, and there are also so many others who have had this treatment; if these authors are to be believed, the US was a nation founded and led by a bunch of writers.)

But the biography itself isn't terrible, and Kaplan is Adams-friendly enough that it's obvious and sort of adorable? It's sort of standard--not bad, but nothing amazing in it, honestly. Just very middle-of-the-road.