An enthralling chronicle of the American nineteenth century told through the unraveling of the nation's first political dynasty
John and Abigail Adams founded a famous political family, but they would not witness its calamitous fall from grace. When John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so began the slow decline of the family's political legacy.
InHeirs of an Honored Name, award-winning historian Douglas R. Egerton depicts a family grown famous, wealthy -- and aimless. After the Civil War, Republicans looked to the Adamses to steer their party back to its radical 1850s roots. Instead, Charles Francis Sr. and his children -- Charles Francis Jr., John Quincy II, Henry and Clover Adams, and Louisa Adams Kuhn -- largely quit the political arena and found refuge in an imagined past of aristocratic preeminence.
An absorbing story of brilliant siblings and family strain,Heirs of an Honored Nameshows how the burden of impossible expectations shaped the Adamses and, through them, American history.
Douglas R. Egertonis a professor of history at Le Moyne College. The award-winning author of eight previous books, including
Thunder at the Gatesand
The Wars of Reconstruction, he lives in Fayetteville, New York. Deeply researched and brimming with anecdotes, from this narrative emerges not only the decline and fall of the Adams family but also the political scene of the nineteenth century, the rise of modern America, and the unavoidable parallels with our own time as a nation that finds itself increasingly divided.
Booklist Douglas Egerton has emerged as one of our nation's leadinghistorians... Egerton is to be praised for his in-depth coverage of not only thesons of Charles Francis Adams, but also the women who married into the family.Egerton uses the lives of Adams family members as a window into the Civil Warera.
Erik Chaput, Providence Journal Egerton brings to life the third and foul³N
![Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/3/4/0/2_6863941.jpg "Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America [Hardcover]")