I’ve read several of McCullough’s books – The Great Bridge, Truman, Johnstown Flood. Always enjoyed them. I’ve been struggling a bit with this one. I don’t think it’s the book, I think I’m just tired of the subject. I just finished a biography of George Mason and another of George Washington, so the information is getting repetitive.
Few tidbits about the book……
Interesting that Congress voted in favor of independence on July 2nd, not July 4th.
John Adams was a quote machine: “Facts are stubborn things”.
“Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially for the lower classes of people, are so extremely wise and useful that to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”
“Pen, ink, and paper and a sitting posture are great helps to attention and thinking.”
“We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular Governments. But there is great Danger, that those Governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear, that in every assembly, Members will obtain an Influence, by Noise not sense. By Meanness, not Greatness. By Ignorance not Learning. By contracted Hearts not large souls.”
[GreatQuotes]