Description
Book SynopsisThis volume chronicles Adams’s efforts, against great odds, to achieve formal recognition of the United States. Documents include his vigorous response to criticism of his seemingly unorthodox methods by those who would have preferred that he pursue a different course, including Congress’s new secretary for foreign affairs, Robert R. Livingston.
Trade ReviewThe heart of the matter, quite simply, is John Adams—fussing, fuming, stretching his mind to its widest effort, using his eyes to detect everything visible and supposable about the human comedy and tragedy of which he is an event-making part. -- Adrienne Koch * New York Times Book Review *
These volumes [11 and 12] are elegantly produced and contain many helpful features… No reference library of note should be without a complete set of the
Papers of John Adams, and no historian of the American Revolution in general, or the diplomacy of this era in particular, should fail to use these volumes extensively. -- David B. Mattern * New England Quarterly *
In the
Papers of John Adams, the superb standard of editorial scholarship that has been the hallmark of the Adams papers remains evident. It is all there: scrupulous care in presenting the texts; thorough, judicious, and insightful annotation; and the detailed analytic system of indexing that makes it possible to consult the published Adams papers so efficiently… As a result, the new volumes interlock closely with the old so as to enhance the utility of each part of the entire group. -- Richard D. Brown * American Historical Review *
The modern craft of documentary editing—which these superb volumes illustrate at its best—is facing a crisis of funding and of confidence… Volumes such as these and the cumulative insight that they give us as scholars and as a people into the origins of our national institutions are a powerful argument for continuing to invest in the scholarship that produces them. -- Constance B. Schulz * Journal of Southern History *
The high quality of production that readers have come to expect from The Adams Papers has been maintained by the Belknap Press. The editors are to be congratulated for so capably continuing publication of this comprehensive and useful documentary edition. -- Richard Middleton * William & Mary Quarterly *
[Former editor-in-chief of the Adams Papers] Mr. [L. H.] Butterfield brought to the immense project the high scholarly and literary standards that have distinguished it to this day, as publication of the
Papers continues in one splendid volume after another. -- David McCullough, author of
John AdamsTable of ContentsDescriptive List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Minister to the Netherlands 2. John Adams and His Letterbooks 3. Notes on Editorial Method Acknowledgments Guide to Editorial Apparatus 4. Textual Devices 5. Adams Family Code Names 6. Descriptive Symbols 7. Location Symbols 8. Other Abbreviations and Conventional Terms 9. Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited Papers of John Adams, October 1781 - April 1782 Appendix: List of Omitted Documents Index
