Hanover Square Press
320 Pages
With John Adams, I decided not to go down the same rabbit hole that I did with George Washington when I let my OCD take over for a bit. My plan going forward would limit the number of books about ancillary events during that particular president’s life. However, with John Adams Under Fire by Dan Abrams, I let this one into the project. It was a good choice.
The Boston Massacre is seen by some as the first shots of the American Revolution, before the shots were exchanged between the colonists and regulars at Lexington and Concord. John Adams played a significant role in the events after the Boston Massacre that he deserved a book all on its own. His addition to the legal team defending the soldiers was profound on several levels, both for the crown and the colonists.
Even today, we still don’t know everything about the Boston Massacre. Conflicting reports at the time have been muddier over the intervening years. Parts of the transcripts of the trials are lost. Was there a mystery shooter in one of the buildings around the Boston State House? Was there a little wagging of the dog to bring about a specific narrative? These questions are explored in this book, although they cannot be answered with any certainty. However, it makes you think. What could it be?
Among all these questions around the actual event are the trials of Captain Preston and the soldiers who were there on that snowy March evening. John Adams was asked to defend the soldiers as a means to show the public that a fair trial could be held between the Patriots and Loyalists. In the introduction of the book, Abrams made the claim that the scenes in the mini-series, “John Adams,” were wildly inaccurate, but then did little to explain himself. For me, this was the only weakness of the book. If Abrams was adamant enough to include it in his introduction, then it deserved an explanation in the wrap up. It did not get that, which made for some confusion.
This book has a lot of information on the trials themselves, even with the missing records. This book goes into deep detail on the Boston Massacre and the subsequent atmosphere in Boston. The exploration of the public reaction helps to set the stage for the impending American Revolution so that the readers and a fuller understanding of the times and triggers.
While Adams tends to get a back seat in this book to the massacre itself, it does highlight Adams’ desire to be fair, despite the political costs. At the time of the trials, he was considering a run at public office to promote his Patriot tendencies. He took on these lawyerly duties despite the possible damage it could do to his image. It was the right thing to do.
Dan Abrams explores a part of John Adams’ life that helped to define his personal attributes when it came to fairness and the letter of the law. John Adams Under Fire takes a snapshot of a small part of a year in Adams’ life that helped to define him as a man and politician in the future. It cemented his name in the local lore where he was known well enough to be named to the convention in Philadelphia. Without these moments in 1770, we may not have known John Adams as the Founding Father that he became. His road to the presidency would have been incredibly more difficult. Reading about this defining moment was important to learning more about John Adams. It was a welcome addition to the reading project.
Craig Bacon has been to the approximate site of the Boston Massacre. The real site is in the middle of a busy roadway, but there’s a memorial very close by.
NEXT UP: The Education of John Adams by R.B. Bernstein