The Portable John Adams

By John Adams

Book Overview

In addition to being an uncompromising defender of liberty, esteemed diplomat, and successor to George Washington, John Adams was a passionate and prolific writer. Adams biographer John Patrick Diggins gathers an impressive variety of his works in this compact, original volume, including parts of his diary and autobiography, and selections from his rich correspondence with this wife, Abigail, Thomas Jefferson, and others. The Portable John Adams also features his most important political works- "A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law," "Thoughts on Government," "A Defense of Constitutions," "Novanglus," and "Discources in Davila." There is no finer introduction to the protean genius of this seminal American philosopher. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142437786
• ISBN13: 9780142437780
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 533 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

The greatness of a founding father

Adams was in my American childhood a neglected founding father. Washington was the father of the nation, and Jefferson the great author of the 'Declaration of Independence'maker of the Louisiana Purchase, Madison the great author of the Federalist, Monroe the enunciator of the doctrine which determined US attitudes to the whole of the Americas. But in recent years there has been a great interest in the work of Adams including the outstanding award-winning biography of David MacCullough. I have read only bits of Adams, and sense a great intelligence, organization of mind, firm conviction of democratic principle. There is a sense with him as with almost all the founding fathers of their having been somehow on a higher level than our present political leaders. I do not know how much time non- scholarly readers will wish to an Adams volume but there is outstanding political writing here, and a selection of his remarkable correspondence. Just to give a taste of his language and democratic principles I quote a snippet of his Inaugural Address in 1797. "For it is the people only that are represented. It is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people. And what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence."