John Quincy Adams
A Man for the Whole People
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- ¥2,400
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A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy Adams
In this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy’s long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic.
Born the first son of John and Abigail Adams, he was pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps in both law and politics. His boyhood was spent amid the furor of the American Revolution, and as a teen he assisted his father on diplomatic missions in Europe, hobnobbing with monarchs and statesmen, dining with Ben Franklin, sitting by Voltaire at the opera. He received a world-class education, becoming fluent in Latin, Greek, German, and French. His astonishing intellect and poise would lead to a diplomatic career of his own, in which he'd help solidify his fledgling nation’s standing in the world.
He was intertwined with every famous American of his day, from Washington to Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. He was on stage, frequently front and center, during the Revolutionary Era, the fractious birth of American party politics, the War of 1812, the Era of Good Feelings, and the peak of Continental Expansion. It was against this backdrop that he served as an ambassador, senator, secretary of state, and, unhappily, as president. The driving force behind both the Transcontinental Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine, this champion of Manifest Destiny spent the last years of his life fighting against the annexation of Texas because it would facilitate the spread of slavery.
This deeply researched, brilliantly written volume delves into John Quincy’s intellectual pursuits and political thought; his loving, yet at times strained, marriage to Louisa Catherine Johnson, whom he met in London; his troubling relationships with his three sons; and his fiery post-presidency rebirth in Congress as he became the chamber’s most vocal opponent of slavery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to this sparkling biography, John Quincy Adams both "reflect and transcend his famous parents," just as he was both a product of his young country and a major force in its evolution from fledgling rebel alliance to continent-spanning behemoth to fractured nation riven by civil strife. Biographer Woods (LBJ) makes a long, primary source–rich examination of Adams's formative years and early career, finding that his mother Abigail's intellectual influence, his experiences during the Revolutionary War as a diplomat's son, and his accomplishments as a diplomat himself (he brokered some the country's most important early treaties) led him to a novel political position. His "goal," according to Woods, was to "make strong enough to... resolve its great contradiction," slavery, which he thought could be accomplished through the addition of more free territory. Thus, he served as "a high priest to manifest destiny" but also an abolitionist "fellow traveler." Woods pegs the tensions of this position as the cause of Adams's failed presidency but also as the hallmark of his victorious final act as forceful antislavery congressman. Woods's account especially shines when focusing on Adams's marriage to Louisa Catherine Johnson; the devoted pair rivaled one another in intellect but also oversensitivity, making for entertaining reading ("Louisa pretended a headache for the privilege of being cross," notes a typical Adams diary entry). It's an immersive, winsome character study.
