Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 3 and 4: April 1778 – September 1782 (Adams Papers) (Volumes 3 and 4) - Hardcover

Adams Family

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674004051 ISBN 13: 9780674004054

Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 1973

Synopsis

The letters in these volumes, written from both sides of the Atlantic, addressed by and to members of the Adams family, chronicle nearly five years of its history, They were years in which John Adams in successive missions to Europe, accompanied first by one son, then by two, initiated what would be a continuing role for Adamses in three generadons: representing their country and advancing its interests in the capitals of Europe.

John Adams, a troubled but stouthearted Yankee lawyer on the vast new scene of Europe, though always circumspect in familial correspondence in referring to public matters, provides, in his revealing letters about his own health and state of mind, sufficient insight into the difficult relations among the American commissioners, the designs of America's allies, and the diplomatic failures and triumphs he experienced in Paris and the Netherlands to permit some reevaluations of purposes and tactics. With these high matters are mingled the rigors and rewards of travel, concern with his sons' education, books for their reading, Dutch cloth and ribbons for his wife.

Whether Mrs. Adams' letters relate to the upbringing of children, the problems of wartime taxes and inflation, the inferior roles assigned to American women, or her wide historical reading, they bear the marks of distinction of mind and mastery of language that make them timeless.

If the letters of these two are central, those written by others are hardly less interesting, relating as they do to the concerns of young John Quincy at school in Levden and his observations on his way to and during his stay in St. Petersburg at age fourteen: to the adventure-filled return voyage of Charles, aged eleven, to America; to the interests of the younger Abigail maturing in Braintree; to the reactions of sturdy patriots to the tides and rumors of war.

About this title

From the Back Cover

'It is of course a familiar tribute to this enterprise to say that it disinters John Adams the man who gives him a place in history at last equal to that of any other Founding Father. In fact by publishing the family letters as a distinct series the editors enhance still more the vigorous personalities, human reactions, and often vehement opinions of their subjects.'-Esmond Wright in the William and Mary Quarterly

About the Author

L. H. Butterfield was editor in chief of The Adams Papers.

Edition details

• Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1973
• ISBN 10: 0674004051
• ISBN 13: 9780674004054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 486
• Editor: Butterfield L. H., Friedlaender Marc