Biography · Similar reads

Books like John Adams

John Adams by David McCullough is about founding era, political courage, marriage and partnership. If that's what drew you in, here are 6 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.

  1. Alexander Hamilton
    Alexander Hamilton

    01

    Alexander Hamilton

    Ron Chernow · Biography

    Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton — immigrant, orphan, Revolutionary War aide-de-camp, first Secretary of the Treasury, founder of the American financial system, and victim of Aaron Burr's bullet — is the most comprehensive single-volume account of Hamilton's life and the book that most directly sparked the Hamilton revival in popular culture, including Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical.

    Read the summary →
  2. Washington: A Life
    Washington: A Life

    02

    Washington: A Life

    Ron Chernow · Biography

    Ron Chernow's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George Washington is the most comprehensive single-volume life of the first president, tracing his formation as a Virginia planter, his military career in the French and Indian War and the Revolution, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his eight years as the first executive of an untested republic.

    Read the summary →
  3. 1776
    1776

    03

    1776

    David McCullough · History

    David McCullough's 1776, published in 2005, covers a single year of the American Revolution — from the winter siege of Boston through Washington's crossing of the Delaware and the surprise victory at Trenton.

    Read the summary →
  4. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

    04

    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

    Doris Kearns Goodwin · Biography

    Doris Kearns Goodwin's account of Abraham Lincoln's formation of his cabinet — which included his three main rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination: William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates — is one of the most widely discussed leadership books of the twenty-first century and one of the most readable biographies of the Lincoln era.

    Read the summary →
  5. A Beautiful Mind
    A Beautiful Mind

    05

    A Beautiful Mind

    Sylvia Nasar · Biography

    Sylvia Nasar's biography of the mathematician John Nash — Nobel laureate, game theory pioneer, and paranoid schizophrenic — is one of the finest accounts of genius and mental illness in biographical literature.

    Read the summary →
  6. American Kingpin
    American Kingpin

    06

    American Kingpin

    Nick Bilton · Biography

    American Kingpin is Nick Bilton's account of the rise and fall of Silk Road, the dark-web drug marketplace run by Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts." Bilton traces the story from its ideological origins — Ulbricht's libertarian belief that a free market for drugs would reduce violence, cut out cartels, and let individuals make their own choices — through its rapid growth into a billion-dollar operation, and finally to the multi-agency investigation that culminated in Ulbricht's arrest in a San Francisco public library in 2013.

    Read the summary →

Chat with John Adams

Ask questions. Adapt it to your life. Get answers based on your goals.

Download on the App Store