The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams

by Phyllis Lee Levin

Overview

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams's destiny was foreordained. He was not only "The Greatest Traveler of His Age," but his country's most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy's world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. As his diplomat father's adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America's own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington's appointment, on his phenomenal work abroad, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage. But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848. In The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, Phyllis Lee Levin provides the deeply researched and beautifully written definitive biography of one of the most fascinating and towering early Americans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250081384
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/23/2016
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	601,262
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Phyllis Lee Levin is the author of several books including Abigail Adams and Edith and Woodrow . She has been a reporter, editor, and columnist for The New York Times and lives in Manhattan.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I

1 "A Legacy More Valuable than Gold or Silver" 11

2 "A Great Deal of Room for Me to Grow Better" 23

3 "Some Compensation for My Not Being with My Friends at Braintree" 33

4 A Journal 45

5 "Almost at the World's End" 57

6 "Promise to Produce a Worthy Character" 75

7 "A Son Who Is the Greatest Traveller of His Age" 87

8 "A Sister Who Fulfills My Most Sanguine Expectations" 97

9 "Your Ever Affectionate Brother" 121

10 "The Sentiments of My Heart as They Rise" 133

11 "Study Is My Mistress" 149

12 "A Student in the Office of Theophilus Parsons" 169

13 "Exposed to the Perils of Sentiment" 185

14 "On the Bridge between Wisdom and Folly" 205

15 "I, Too, Am a Scribbler" 221

16 "The Times Change and We Change with Them" 235

Part II

17 "The Magnitude of the Trust and My Own Incompetency" 247

18 "The Usual Mixture between Sweet and Bitter" 267

19 "The Age of Innocence and Thoughtlessness" 283

20 "Albeit Unused to the Melting Mood" 297

21 "Oh My Louisa!" 305

22 "For the Friend of Your Life" 323

23 "Wise and in the Best Interests of the Country" 333

Part III

24 "To Turn Weariness Itself into Pleasure" 353

25 "Painful Retrospection" 369

26 "No Small Difficulty" 377

27 "Another Feather against a Whirlwind" 389

28 "Like a Fish Out of Water" 403

29 "Apostasy" 417

Part IV

30 "In Honorable Diplomatic Exile" 433

31 "Whether of Peace or War" 445

Afterword 459

Acknowledgments 463

Notes 467

Bibliography 507

Index 517

Editorial Reviews

In the splendid The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin, you can picture [John Quincy Adams] the portly minister and the tall royal squinting into the winter sun reflecting off the Neva River…Levin's biography restores the countless details that humanize the sixth president.” —Bloomberg

“Heartfelt and distinguished...a study of the first half of John Quincy's life and times that's as concerned with the inner man as with his increasingly remarkable public achievements.” —The Washington Post

“…A richly detailed biography of sixth U.S. president John Quincy Adams…Levin crafts an intimate portrait of a bookish, devoted young patriot who struggled to balance filial duties to doting parents, a troubled marriage to a wife whose own writings reveal her inner turmoil, and an ambitious career.” —Library Journal

“Levin makes the case that Adams was a man of extraordinary natural gifts, enhanced by diligent study, European travel, and contact with the greatest minds of his era, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin…Leading readers through JQA's early life almost day by day, The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams offers detail and intimacy.” —The Boston Globe

“…Levin offers wonderful insights into [John Quincy Adams's] career and character… an excellent examination of a portion of the life and public career of a true icon in U.S. diplomatic history.” —Booklist

“An intimate, richly detailed portrait of a powerful political figure.” —Kirkus

“Phyllis Lee Levin's The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams is a brilliant look at a major American figure of continuing interest. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Ms. Levin's important new book makes exceptional use of Adams' unexpurgated diaries to underscore the humanity of this misunderstood figure, 'Old Man Eloquent,' and adds necessary nuance to his undeservedly harsh reputation.” —Paul LeClerc, President Emeritus, New York Public Library

“John Quincy Adams, long overshadowed by his celebrated father, comes fully into his own in this luminous account of his extraordinary education—as a boy in Revolutionary Massachusetts and the courts of Europe, a youth at Harvard College, a brilliant young diplomat, and a failure in his first outings as a politician. A shrewd observer of American political history and a perceptive student of human nature, Phyllis Lee Levin has taken the measure of the private as well as the public life of her subject, and the result is the warmest, most elegant, most knowing portrait of John Quincy Adams we have ever had.” —Patricia O'Toole, author of The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends and When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt

“Balanced, compelling, and wise. Levin brings Louisa Catherine Adams, Adams's troubled wife, into the center of the picture, where she belongs, and the author is shrewd about family dynamics.” —Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher

John Quincy Adams, long overshadowed by his celebrated father, comes fully into his own in this luminous account of his extraordinary education--as a boy in Revolutionary Massachusetts and the courts of Europe, a youth at Harvard College, a brilliant young diplomat, and a failure in his first outings as a politician. A shrewd observer of American political history and a perceptive student of human nature, Phyllis Lee Levin has taken the measure of the private as well as the public life of her subject, and the result is the warmest, most elegant, most knowing portrait of John Quincy Adams we have ever had.

author of The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Port Patricia O'Toole