Best biography of abigail adams
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Abigail Adams revised: New book paints a different portrait of famed first lady
University of Richmond history professor and author Woody Holton will lecture about his just-published Free Press biography, “Abigail Adams: A Life,” on Tuesday at the Adams National Historical Park.
Here the National Book Award finalist tells Patriot Ledger reporter Lane Lambert what inspired him to chronicle the life of the wife of one president and the mother of another.
Q: With so many Adams books already available, what moved you to write another one?
A: I kind of stumbled across her, while I was doing my previous book (“Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution”). I thought war-bond speculators were an important (financial) battle of that time, and I wanted to find one bond speculator to put a face on all the others. None of the others were well-documented – but I found one, and it was Abigail.
Q: That’s not the image most Americans have of the woman who’s best known for telli
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Abigail Adams
In this new, levande, nuanced portrait, now in paperback, prize-winning historian Woody Holton uses original sources and letters for the first time in a sweeping reinterpretation of Adams's life story and of women's roles in the creation of the republic.
In this levande new biography of Abigail Adams, the most illustrious woman of the founding era, Bancroft Award–winning historian Woody Holton offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Adams’s life story and of women’s roles in the creation of the republic.
Using previously overlooked documents from numerous archives, Abigail Adams shows that the wife of the second president of the United States was far more charismatic and influential than historians have realized. One of the finest writers of her age, Adams passionately campaigned for women’s education, denounced sex discrimination, and matched wits not only with her brilliant husband, John, but with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. When male Patriots ignored her
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Abigail Smith Adams
Edited by Debra Michals, PhD |
Hailed for her now-famous admonition that the Founding Fathers “remember the ladies” in their new laws, Abigail Adams was not only an early advocate for women’s rights, she was a vital confidant and advisor to her husband John Adams, the nation’s second president. She opposed slavery and supported women’s education.
Born to a prominent family in Weymouth, Massachusetts on November 22 [November 11, Old Style], , Adams’ father, Reverend William Smith, was part of a prestigious ministerial community within the Congregational Church. Her mother Elizabeth was a descendent of the Quincy family. Like other women, Abigail had no formal education, but she availed herself of the family’s library to master subjects most women never considered. She also joined her mother in tending to the poor and sick.
In , Abigail married John Adams, a Harvard graduate beginning a law career. The couple moved to Adams’ farm in Braintree, sout