Gwen Fries of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society has a nice post on March 19, 1805 between John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams’s encounter with Aaron Burr a ship sailing from Baltimore to Philadelphia. Here is a […]
John Quincy Adams
Local journalism is “civic infrastructure”
Over the weekend I wrote a piece here at Current arguing that there was historical precedent for thinking about infrastructure development as something larger than just roads and bridges. I quoted John Quincy Adams’s first annual message to Congress. Here […]
When Abigail Adams inoculated her children
Here is a taste of Ronald Shafer’s piece at The Washington Post: At the dawn of the American Revolution, the world was fighting smallpox just as it now is battling the novel coronavirus. Like the novel coronavirus, smallpox was “a highly contagious […]
What John Quincy Adams Thought About His Pastors and Schoolmates
This is a great post from J.L. Bell at Boston 1775. A taste: I promised more cattiness from John Quincy Adams as a college student. In his diary for the year 1787, Adams inserted several profiles of his classmates and other people he met […]
John Quincy Adams and the Journey to the Center of the Earth
Here is Marissa Fessenden at Smithsonian.Com: It was the 1820’s. John Cleves Symmes, Jr., an American army officer was traveling around the country on the lecture circuit, proclaiming his theory of a Hollow Earth, one that envisioned the planet as several solid […]
Episode 50: The Religious Beliefs of the Adams Family
Don’t be confused by the title, we are not talking about the spooky family from the 1960s. Rather, in this episode, we turn to the religious history of one of America’s founding families. By focusing on the Adams family, one […]
Michael Kazin on the Fate of Presidents Who Didn’t Win a Majority of the Popular Vote
I have said it many times here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home: historians cannot predict the future. But they can provide much needed context. That is what Michael Kazin of Georgetown University does in his recent Washington Post op-ed “No […]
Was the Declaration of Independence a “Plea for Help?”
This is the title of Ishaan Tharoor‘s Washington Post interview with historian Larrie Ferrerio, author of the recent Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. (Check out my review of this book at Education […]
Did John Quincy Adams Pass the Harvard Entrance Exam?
He took the exam in 1786. Over at Boston 1775, J.L. Bell tells us what happened. Here is a taste: Here’s John Quincy’s description of the test from his diary: Between 9 and 10 in the morning, I went to the […]
The Author’s Corner with Charles Edel
Charles Edel is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College. This interview is based on his new book, Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic (Harvard University Press, September 2014). JF: What led […]
New Books on John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams
Louisa Catherine Adams Over at The New York Review of Books, Susan Dunn reviews three new books on John Quincy Adams and his wife Louisa Catherine. They are: Fred Kaplan, John Quincy Adams: American VisionaryMargery M. Heffron, Louisa Catherine: The Other […]
Andrew Bacevich Defines Conservativism
After blasting the type of conservatism found on the pages of The National Review and The Weekly Standard, Andrew Bacevich, writing in The American Conservative, offers a conservative alternative. He calls it “Counterculture Conservatism.” Here are some its characteristics: Counterculture […]
Quote of the Day
Today’s quote comes from the diary of John Quincy Adams. He wrote it on his forty-fifth birthday–July 11, 1812. I am forty-five years old— Two thirds of a long life are past, and I have done Nothing to distinguish it […]