Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Heirs of an honored name : the decline of the Adams family and the rise of modern America / Douglas Egerton.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Basic Books, 2019Edition: First editionDescription: xiii, 460 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780465093885
  • 0465093884
Other title:
  • Decline of the Adams family and the rise of modern America
Subject(s):
Contents:
Generations -- The assemblyman -- The free soiler -- The congressman -- The minister -- The officer -- The combatants -- The colonel -- The independents -- A singular, unsolved family
Summary: "John and Abigail Adams sired the first dynasty to shape American politics, but they would not witness their family's calamitous fall from grace. When President John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so began the slow death of the family's political legacy -- a decline that mirrored the fall of the Republican Party. The Adamses would abandon their forefather's enlightened republicanism, yielding to the temptation of oligarchy and personal spoils. In Heirs of an Honored Name, award-winning historian Douglas Egerton depicts a family grown famous, wealthy -- and aimless. After the Civil War, the country's future was up for grabs. Republicans disillusioned with President Ulysses S. Grant's governance looked to the Adams family to steer their party back to its 1840s roots. Instead, family patriarch Charles Francis Sr. refused to fight for the nomination in 1872 and 1876, and the family eventually quit the political arena altogether for the luxuries of Gilded Age America. Heirs of an Honored Name tells the enthralling, troubling story of the nation's first family and the end of an older, aristocratic America amid the upheavals of the Gilded Age"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 973.5509 E29 Available 33111009533577
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

In Heirs 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 Name shows how the burden of impossible expectations shaped the Adamses and, through them, American history.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Generations -- The assemblyman -- The free soiler -- The congressman -- The minister -- The officer -- The combatants -- The colonel -- The independents -- A singular, unsolved family

"John and Abigail Adams sired the first dynasty to shape American politics, but they would not witness their family's calamitous fall from grace. When President John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so began the slow death of the family's political legacy -- a decline that mirrored the fall of the Republican Party. The Adamses would abandon their forefather's enlightened republicanism, yielding to the temptation of oligarchy and personal spoils. In Heirs of an Honored Name, award-winning historian Douglas Egerton depicts a family grown famous, wealthy -- and aimless. After the Civil War, the country's future was up for grabs. Republicans disillusioned with President Ulysses S. Grant's governance looked to the Adams family to steer their party back to its 1840s roots. Instead, family patriarch Charles Francis Sr. refused to fight for the nomination in 1872 and 1876, and the family eventually quit the political arena altogether for the luxuries of Gilded Age America. Heirs of an Honored Name tells the enthralling, troubling story of the nation's first family and the end of an older, aristocratic America amid the upheavals of the Gilded Age"-- Provided by publisher.

Powered by Koha