Henry Adams: History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (Library of America)

by Henry Adams

Overview

One of the greatest histories ever written in English, Henry Adams’s History of the United States is remarkable for its fullness of detail, its penetrating insight, and above all its strong, lively, and ironic style. First published in nine volumes from 1889 to 1891, this classic work was out of print for several decades until The Library of America reissued it in two volumes: the first volume on the years of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency and the second devoted to those of James Madison.

With a cast of characters including Aaron Burr, Napoleon Bonaparte, Albert Gallatin, John Randolph, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and the complex, brilliantly delineated character of Thomas Jefferson, the first volume is unrivaled in its handling of diplomatic intrigue and political factionalism. Upon assuming office, Jefferson discovers that his optimistic laissez-faire principles—designed to prevent American government from becoming a militaristic European "tyranny"—clash with the realities of European war and American security. The party of small government presides over the Louisiana Purchase, the most extensive use of executive power the country has yet seen. Jefferson’s embargo—a high-minded effort at peaceable coercion—breeds corruption and smuggling, and the former defender of states’ rights is forced to use federal power to suppress them. The passion for peace and liberty pushes the country toward war.

In the center of these ironic reversals, played out in a Washington full of diplomatic intrigue, is the complex figure of Jefferson himself, part tragic visionary, part comic mock-hero. Like his contemporary Napoleon Bonaparte, he is swept into power by the rising tide of democratic nationalism; unlike Bonaparte, he tries to avert the consequences of the wolfish struggle for power among nation-states.

The grandson of one president and the great-grandson of another, Adams gained access to hitherto secret archives in Europe. The diplomatic documents that lace the history lend a novelistic intimacy to scenes such as Jefferson’s conscientious introduction of democratic table manners into stuffily aristocratic state dinner parties. Written in a strong, lively style pointed with Adams’s wit, the History chronicles the consolidation of American character, and poses questions about the future course of democracy.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780940450349
Publisher:	Library of America
Publication date:	07/04/1986
Series:	Library of America Henry Adams Edition , #2
Edition description:	COMB ED.
Pages:	1308
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.15(h) x 1.56(d)

About the Author

Born in 1838 into one of the oldest and most distinguished families in Boston, a family which had produced two American presidents, Henry Adams had the opportunity to pursue a wide-ranging variety of intellectual interests during the course of his life. Functioning both in the world of practical men and afffairs (as a journalist and an assistant to his father, who was an American diplomat in Washinton and London), and in the world of ideas (as a prolific writer, the editor of the prestigious North American Review, and a professor of medieval, european, and American history at Harvard), Adams was one of the few men of his era who attempted to understand art, thought, culture, and history as one complex force field of interacting energies. His two masterworks in this dazzling effort are Mont Saint Michel and Chartres and The Education of Henry Adams, published one after the other in 1904 and 1907. Taken together they may be read as Adams' spiritual autobiography—two monumental volumes in which he attempts to bring together into a vast synthesis all of his knowledge of politics, economics, psychology, science, philosophy, art, and literature in order to attempt to understand the individual's place in history and society. They constitute one of the greatest historical and philosophical meditations on the human condition in all of literature.

Table of Contents

Volume 1
I.	Physical and Economical Conditions	5
II.	Popular Characteristics	31
III.	Intellect of New England	54
IV.	Intellect of the Middle States	76
V.	Intellect of the Southern States	91
VI.	American Ideals	107
VII.	The Inauguration	126
VIII.	Organization	148
IX.	The Annual Message	169
X.	Legislation	180
XI.	The Judiciary Debate	193
XII.	Personalities	209
XIII.	The Spanish Court	227
XIV.	The Retrocession	238
XV.	Toussaint Louverture	255
XVI.	Closure of the Mississippi	269
XVII.	Monroe's Mission	285
Volume 2
I.	Rupture of the Peace of Amiens	301
II.	The Louisiana Treaty	319
III.	Claim to West Florida	336
IV.	Constitutional Difficulties	352
V.	The Louisiana Debate	366
VI.	Louisiana Legislation	380
VII.	Impeachments	393
VIII.	Conspiracy	409
IX.	The Yazoo Claims	431
X.	Trial of Justice Chase	449
XI.	Quarrel with Yrujo	467
XII.	Pinckney's Diplomacy	480
XIII.	Monroe and Talleyrand	496
XIV.	Relations with England	516
XV.	Cordiality with England	533
XVI.	Anthony Merry	546
XVII.	Jefferson's Enemies	567
XVIII.	England and Tripoli	581
	Maps
	The States of North Africa	166
	The Coast of West Florida and Louisiana	302