The Problem of Democracy

The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality

By: Nancy Isenberg, Andrew Burstein

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

"Told with authority and style.... Crisply summarizing the Adamses' legacy, the authors stress principle over partisanship." (The Wall Street Journal)

How the father and son presidents foresaw the rise of the cult of personality and fought those who sought to abuse the weaknesses inherent in our democracy, from the New York Times best-selling author of White Trash.

John and John Quincy Adams: rogue intellectuals, unsparing truth-tellers, too uncensored for their own political good. They held that political participation demanded moral courage. They did not seek popularity (it showed). They lamented the fact that hero worship in America substituted idolatry for results; and they made it clear that they were talking about Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson. When John Adams succeeded George Washington as President, his son had already followed him into public service and was stationed in Europe as a diplomat. Though they spent many years apart - and as their careers spanned Europe, Washington DC, and their family home south of Boston - they maintained a close bond through extensive letter writing, debating history, political philosophy, and partisan maneuvering.

The problem of democracy is an urgent problem; the father-and-son presidents grasped the perilous psychology of politics and forecast what future generations would have to contend with: citizens wanting heroes to worship and covetous elites more than willing to mislead. Rejection at the polls, each after one term, does not prove that the presidents Adams had erroneous ideas. Intellectually, they were what we today call "independents", reluctant to commit blindly to an organized political party. No historian has attempted to dissect their intertwined lives as Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein do in this audio, and there is no better time than the present to learn from the American nation's most insightful malcontents.

©2019 Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A top-notch dual biography.... An unsettling yet well-presented argument that the failures of John and John Quincy Adams illustrate a disturbing feature of American politics." (Kirkus Reviews)

"In this daring, lucid, and provocative book, Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein challenge founding myths to reveal democracy as an incomplete, contested, and often distorted ideal. By exploring the failed presidencies and probing ideas of John and John Quincy Adams, The Problem of Democracy exposes the deep roots of contemporary demagogues and their polarizing deceptions." (Alan Taylor, author of American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804)

“Although the current occupant of the White House is nowhere mentioned by name in this book, his prodigious shadow looms large. The trends that so distressed the Adamses in the nation’s early years have intensified to a degree they could scarcely have imagined, thanks to virulent social media, the injection of vast sums of money into American campaigns, a politicized judiciary and rising economic inequality. We can only be grateful that father and son were spared this vision of their worst fears coming true.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Limited horizon

The book concentrated on the presidencies of father and son, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. While the authors have a lofty aim, the vehicle is of limited interest.

Good Account, Clear Bias

This is a decent account of historical events and it is certainly thorough, if not biased in approach. To their credit, the authors make that plain when they both open and close the book. Their stated intent is to re-examine the two Presidents and try to make the case that they were not as “distant” of figures as other historians have portrayed. All in all, a decent book, but would recommend balancing this with other accounts as well.

Good book... worth listening to thrice....

All in all I enjoyed listening to this book. The Adams are probably watching as America falls to their prophetic utterances.

Many Threads

At first I was discouraged with the multiple threads and the hopping back-and-forth comparing the two Adamses, father and son, their youths, their educational background, the intensity and propensity of voracious reading, their extensive years of travel in service to their country and ideals, and all of the other myriad things that comprise their individual contexts.

About halfway, though, it all started to focus and built and built until it had me thoroughly engaged.

Don't give up; it's worth it.

Very insightful and rewarding adding understanding

To our current Trumpian nightmare. We need an Adams to help set our republic back on course.

Intimate and Illuminating

A dual-recollection of the individual and combined exploits of the Adams presidents, this book dedicates most of its time to analysis of their characters and the coincidences and relationships that unite their stories throughout the early American republic.

Wonderfully and engagingly read, this book does a great job of elaborating on the Adams’ world-views as well as their outlooks on political theory and the evolving landscape of the over eighty years their story covers. For those interested in the history and characters of the presidents, they will not be disappointed. The commentary on their diaries and correspondence make you feel as if you know them intimately by the end.

As far as political theory, the book does a good job of exploring how drastically the democratic system changed over the early years of the United States, and the last few chapters especially are used to good effect in postulating what the Adams would think of contemporary American politics.

It is very moving, and it highlights a relationship between father and son that feels familiar and yet is unique by its position in history. Definitely recommend to fans of McCullough’s JA biography. It takes the typical Adamsian approach and paints the world through their self-critical yet self-righteous lenses. It has biases that are easy to identify but that’s not uncommon in any biography.