He also studied and translated, into both English and French, Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero's Orations, Virgil's Aeneid, Tacitus's Agricola, the works of Sallust, and some works of Horace and Ovid.

By 16 he had read - among other things - all eight volumes (more than 500 pages each) of David Hume's History of England, Catherine Macaulay's eight-volume The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line, William Robertson's three-volume The History of the Reign of Charles V, Robert Watson's two-volume The History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Thomas Davies's Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, Edward Gibbon's six-volume epic The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and the two-volume landmark work in economics by Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. A magisterial biography and a sweeping panorama of American history from the Washington to Lincoln eras, Unger's John Quincy Adams follows one of America's most important yet least-known figures.By the time he was ten years old, for example, John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, had read Shakespeare's Tempest, As You Like It, Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage. In this masterful biography, award winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals Quincy Adams as a towering figure in the nation's formative years and one of the most courageous figures in American history, which is why he ranked first in John F. John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad. This biography and sweeping panorama of American history from the Washington to Lincoln eras, follows one of America's most important yet least-known figures.He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winning book Profiles in Courage. In this biography, the author reveals Quincy Adams as a towering figure in the nation's formative years and one of the most courageous figures in American history, which is why he ranked first in John F.

He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War.

John quincy adams unger