The remarkable education of John Quincy Adams / Phyllis Lee Levin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levin, Phyllis Lee, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848.

Adams, John Quincy.

Presidents--United States--Biography.

Presidents.

Education.

United States.

Presidents--Education--United States.

Adams, Louisa Catherine, 1775-1852.

Diplomatic relations.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

524 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Summary:

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams's destiny was foreordained. He was not only "the greatest traveler of his age," but his country's most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy's world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. As his diplomat father's adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America's own luminaries Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. Though he was determined to make his own career as a lawyer, he was soon sent abroad, at Washington's appointment, as well as beginning a deeply troubled though loving marriage. But through all his emotional turmoil and financial hardship, he remained dedicated to serving his country. Drawing closely on his voluminous writing, especially his journals and letters, this biography offers a more sympathetic look at a man who has often been viewed as cold and stubbornly contentious. It is the definitive biography of the emotional and intellectual development of this fascinating early American.--From publisher description.

Contents:

A legacy more valuable than gold or silver

A great deal of room for me to grow better

Some compensation for me not being with my friends at Braintree

A journal

Almost at the world's end

Promise to produce a worthy character

A son who is the greatest traveller of his age

And of a sister who fulfills my most sanguine expectations

To have a degree at Harvard

Your ever affectionate brother

Study is my mistress

While a student in the office of Theophilus Parsons Newburyport

Exposed to the perils of sentiment

I am on the bridge between wisdom and folly

And I, too, am a scribbler

The times change and we change with them

The magnitude of the trust and my own incompetency

The usual mixture between sweet and bitter

The age of innocence and thoughtlessness

Prudence is a sorry matchmaker

Oh my Louisa!

For the friend of your life

Wise and in the best interests of the country

To turn weariness itself into pleasure

A painful retrospective

With no small difficulty

Another feather against a whirlwind

Like a fish out of water

Apostasy

In honorable diplomatic exile.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781137279620

1137279621

OCLC:

896806899