[ctylor]

What does the faculty here think of the 2008 HBO miniseries with Paul Giamatti?

I’ve actually been enjoying it, but I haven’t got to the post-war period yet, so Adams still looks like a hero to me. But I know (from this class) that we all know Adams was actually kind of a bad guy in the grand scheme of things as a Federalist and an enemy of Jeffersonian originalism and a petty tyrant of the Quasi-War and the midnight judges.

So I guess in effect I have two questions:

1) Thoughts on the HBO series?

2) John Adams the man: Hero, villain, or something mixed? Or was he a good guy in the early days but the power of the office of the POTUS corrupted him and the Federalist party?

[ctylor]

I found this thread after I posted this question: https://libertyclassroom.com/forums/topic/hbo-series-john-adams/

The search tools in these forums are lacking!

[gutzmank]

The Sedition Act is unforgivable, as were its enforcement and the appointment of John Marshall as chief justice, but Adams as president did undercut his own party in deciding to negotiate an end to hostilities with France rather than going to war. We have to hand him that.

[Author]

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