American Experience: John and Abigail Adams

• John Adams (HBO Miniseries)
• Benjamin Franklin
• The Adams Chronicles
• Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns
• Alexander Hamilton
• Biography - John & Abigail Adams (A&E DVD Archives)
• American Experience - Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided
• The War That Made America: The Story of the French and Indian War
• Liberty! The American Revolution
• The History Channel Presents The Revolution

Nowhere near as good as the HBO miniseries. It was pretty good. But, there was some good information in there.

The actors do a wonderful job of conveying the lives of the people of the times. Adams seemed secondary. After seeing this, the viewer must come away with a high respect for both John & Abigail. A little acting, and a bit of historian narration, this DVD is both entertaining and informative. Growing up, my image of the Founding Fathers always seemed to focus on Washington, Jefferson & Franklin. One was nothing without the other.

I never, however, at that time, or later, saw them as central to the revolutionary experience. . I was born in their hometown of Quincy, Massachusetts and so imbibed the spirit of the place and their effect on it from early youth with visits to their homes and tombs. The chronology presents Adams as the pre-revolutionary firebrand, the supreme political operative of the Continental Congresses, the diplomatic emissary to various European countries during the war including invaluable service in getting funds from the Dutch, the gentleman farmer chafing at the bit in political slow times, the formative role as first Vice President, the stormy one term as a beleaguered president, the love- hate relationship with his arch political opponent Jefferson and threaded throughout this career his strong dependence on Abigail as wife, mother, political confidante and `soul mate'. Brother Adams (and Sister Abigail) have arrived. As for the closet (and at times not so closet) Tory John I will let David McCullough argue his case.

Frankly, what this documentary has done for me is to reinforce my elementary school-derived high opinion of Abigail. John Adams represented (except in his early firebrand pre-revolutionary period) individually and later through his `party', the Federalists, the closest approximation to what Lafayette represented in the French revolution- the idea of rule by a small-entrenched elite over the `mob'-the so-called Republic of Virtue. Washington, Samuel Adams (a cousin), the Sons of Liberty and, above all, Tom Paine fired my imagination. Some of my first political readings in elementary school were biographies of various members of the family (Which may explain quite a bit, right). I will confess here, as I have previously in this space, that I am something of a `homer' on the Adams family.

These efforts have included highlighting lesser male personalities like financier Robert Morris, paying attention to the role of the Founding Mothers and a deeper look into the plebian base of that revolution. Leading this charge has been David McCullough's (one of the inevitable `talking heads' in this docudrama) best-selling book and now this PBS film. This documentary, although something of a valentine to John and Abigail, does not hide this fact but rather downplays it by highlighting other aspects of a rather long political career. For those who thought that political power couples only started with Bill and Hillary this will be a surprise. Those efforts have also, most prominently of late, included reordering the place that John Adams, an acknowledged early revolutionary leader and second President of the United States, in that pantheon.

Over the past twenty years or so there have been various attempts by historians of the period to reshuffle and expand the pantheon of the American Revolution. To be kind, as I have also mentioned before in this space, I had characterized John Adams as a `conservative revolutionary' (an oxymoron, to be sure) and nothing in this documentary has changed my opinion on that matter.

If only we had people like Adams today. Needless to say, the video is not a substitute for the bestseller "John Adams" This is a fantastic look at one of our greatest Presidents. We might have more confidence and hope for our nation's future.