Adams’s ambitions on behalf of America’s interests, combined with a shrewd understanding of how to counter the threats arrayed against them, allowed him to craft a multitiered policy to insulate the nation from European quarrels, expand U.S. Adams’s particular combination of ideas and policies made him a critical link between the founding generation and the Civil War–era nation of Lincoln.Įxamining Adams’s service as senator, diplomat, secretary of state, president, and congressman, Edel’s study of this extraordinary figure reveals a brilliant but stubborn man who was both visionary prophet and hard-nosed politician. Edel’s provocative biography of Adams argues that he served as the central architect of a grand strategy that shaped America’s rise.

America’s rise from a confederation of revolutionary colonies to a world power is often treated as inevitable, but Charles N. Yet when he spoke them, Adams was not advocating neutrality or passivity but rather outlining a national policy that balanced democratic idealism with a pragmatic understanding of the young republic’s capabilities and limitations. “America goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy”―John Quincy Adams’s famous words are often quoted to justify noninterference in other nations’ affairs. Naval War College will discuss his book Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic.

Nation Builder by Charles N. Edel