Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780465093885)

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.

Author: Douglas R. Egerton
ISBN-10: 0465093884
ISBN-13: 9780465093885
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 10/29/2019
Pages: 480
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.54lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.80d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2019
Publishers Weekly 09/02/2019
Library Journal 08/30/2019 pg. 1
Booklist 09/15/2019 pg. 12
Choice 07/01/2020