The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics
The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics

Author: William J. Cooper

Publisher: Liveright Publishing

Published: 2017-10-24

Total Pages: 620

ISBN-13: 1631493892

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“A vivid and convincing account of one of the most significant—but too often overlooked—figures in our history.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion Overshadowed by both his brilliant father and the brash and bold Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams has long been dismissed as an aloof intellectual. Viciously assailed by Jackson and his populist mobs for being both slippery and effete, Adams nevertheless recovered from defeat in 1828’s presidential election to lead the nation as a lonely Massachusetts congressman in the fight against slavery. Award-winning historian William J. Cooper’s “balanced, wellsourced, and accessible work” (Publishers Weekly) demonstrates that Adams should be considered our lost Founding Father, his moral and political vision the final link to the visionaries who created our nation. With his heroic arguments in the Amistad trial forever memorialized, Adams stood strong against the expansion of slavery that would send the nation hurtling into war. This “well-crafted” (William McFeely) biography reveals Adams to be one of the most battered, but courageous and inspirational, politicians in American history.

Historian in Chief
Historian in Chief

Author: Seth Cotlar

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2019-04-23

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0813942535

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Presidents shape not only the course of history but also how Americans remember and retell that history. From the Oval Office they instruct us what to respect and what to reject in our past. They regale us with stories about who we are as a people, and tell us whom in the pantheon of greats we should revere and whom we should revile. The president of the United States, in short, is not just the nation’s chief legislator, the head of a political party, or the commander in chief of the armed forces, but also, crucially, the nation’s historian in chief. In this engaging and insightful volume, Seth Cotlar and Richard Ellis bring together top historians and political scientists to explore how eleven American presidents deployed their power to shape the nation’s collective memory and its political future. Contending that the nation’s historians in chief should be evaluated not only on the basis of how effective they are in persuading others, Historian in Chief argues they should also be judged on the veracity of the history they tell.

1831
1831

Author: Louis P. Masur

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2002-02-09

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780809041190

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Everyone knew that the great eclipse of 1831 was coming--and most Americans feared it. The United States was no longer a young, uncomplicated republic but, rather, conflicted and dynamic, inching toward cataclysm. Louis P. Masur organizes his remarkable book around the principal themes underlying the dangerous developments that marked this tumultuous year: continuing conflict over slavery in some states and uncertainty about its extension into new ones; the unresolved tension between states' rights and national priorities; competing passions about religion and politics; and the often alarming effects of new machinery on Americans' relationship to the land. In this important and challenging interpretation of antebellum America, Masur argues that disparate events relating to these issues decisively affected the very nature of the American character. -- Back cover.