The Selected Writings of John and John Quincy Adams
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. [8, plus frontis], xxxix, [1], 413, [1], xxix--Index], [3] pages. Frontispiece. Bibliographical Note: John Adams. Bibliographical Note: John Quincy Adams. Index. Some cover wear. No DJ present. Name of previous owner and date inside front cover. Some page discoloration. Adrienne Koch (SeptembAfter her bachelor's degree from New York University, Koch took her a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia. Koch taught at Tulane University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Michigan, before being appointed professor of history at the University of Maryland. She still held this post when she died. William Peden was an influential academic and writer, (March 22, 1913-July 23, 1999). He pursued extensive education, earning a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. His teaching career was predominantly at the University of Missouri. Peden was recognized for his editorial work. Derived from a review published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 71, issue 2, April 1947 by Dexter Perkins, University of Rochester: What has attracted Miss Koch and Mr. Peden, on the whole, is the philosophical, rather than the severely practical aspects of the Adams' mind. But with this small reservation, it is fair to say that in these pages is compressed the very best of two remarkable men. discontent at the results; the personal grappling with the truths of religion, respect for education, and interest in it; a democracy strongly favored with the principles of aristocracy, acid criticism of others, all these things come out in the pages of the Selected Writings. On the side of political theory, neither the elder nor the younger Adams was in any sense a theoretical democrat. John Adams believed in a balanced government, and wrote much to prove his point. John Quincy Adams looked with a cold and practical eye upon the revolutions in Latin America, and indulged in no such ardently idealistic democratic hopes for the new republics as did some of his contemporaries. Both men were as little disposed to bow before King Mob, as they were to bend the knee to the wealthy or the powerful. Despite the somewhat aristocratic flavor of his thinking, Adams the elder could write, of the rich, that they were "seldom remarkable for modesty, ingenuity or humanity. Their wealth has rather a tendency to make them penurious and selfish." Could such men succeed, or even survive in public life today? That is one of the most sober and perhaps most disturbing questions presented by this correspondence. Miss Koch and Mr. Peden have done well in making available to us in relatively brief form so much of what is fundamental and central in the lives and thought of the two great New Englanders and of two great Americans. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Autobiography, Correspondence, Diary, Federal Law, Braintree, James Warren, Abigail Adams, Government, Benjamin Rush, Publicola, Marcellus Papers
[Book #90876]
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