Secondary Sources

Adams Book List

The following list is selection of the many books available about the Adams family. It is organized chronologically by family members.

John Adams (1735–1826)

John Adams: Party of One, by James Grant (2005).

Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, by John Ferling (2004).

John Adams, by David McCullough (2001).

Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, by John Ferling (2000).

John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty, by C. Bradley Thompson (1998).

Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, by Joseph J. Ellis (1993).

John Adams: A Life, by John Ferling (1992).

The Boston Massacre, by Hiller B. Zobel (1970).

The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence, by Richard B. Morris (1965).

Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818)

Abigail Adams, by Woody Holton (2009).

Portia: The World of Abigail Adams, by Edith B. Gelles (1995).

Abigail Adams: A Biography, by Phyllis Lee Levin (1987).

Abigail Adams (1765–1813)

Colonel William Smith and Lady: The Romance of Washington’s Aide and Young Abigail Adams, by Katharine Metcalf Roof (1929).

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)

The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828, by Lynn Hudson Parsons (2009).

John Quincy Adams, by Robert V. Remini (2002).

John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union, by James E. Lewis, Jr. (2001).

Arguing about Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress, by William Lee Miller (1998).

John Quincy Adams, by Lynn Hudson Parsons (1998).

Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy, by Howard Jones (1987).

John Quincy Adams and the Union, by Samuel Flagg Bemis (1956).

John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy, by Samuel Flagg Bemis (1949).

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1775–1852)

Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon, by Michael O’Brien (2010).

Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government, by Catherine Allgor (2000).

A Traveled First Lady: Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams, edited by Margaret A. Hogan and C. James Taylor (2014).

Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886)

Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations, by Howard Jones (2010).

Charles Francis Adams, 1807–1886, by Martin Duberman (1961).

Charles Francis Adams (1835–1915)

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., 1835-1915: The Patrician at Bay, by Edward Chase Kirkland (1965).

Henry Adams (1838–1918)

Henry Adams and the Southern Question, by Michael O’Brien (2005).

Henry Adams and the Making of America, by Garry Wills (2005).

The Political Education of Henry Adams, by Brooks D. Simpson (1996).

Henry Adams, by Ernest Samuels (1989 abridged edition).

Marian Hooper Adams (1842–1885)

Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life, by Natalie Dykstra. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

The Education of Mrs. Henry Adams, by Eugenia Kaledin (1994 2d edition).

Brooks Adams (1848–1927)

Brooks Adams: A Biography, by Arthur F. Beringause (1955).

Adams Family

First Family: Abigail and John, by Joseph J. Ellis (2010).

Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage, by Edith B. Gelles (2009).

My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams, edited by Margaret A. Hogan and C. James Taylor (2007).

The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters, by Paul C. Nagel (1987).

Cannibals of the Heart: A Personal Biography of Louisa Catherine and John Quincy Adams, by Jack Shepherd (1980).

Adams Chronicles: Four Generations of Greatness, by Jack Shepherd (1975).

Adams Genealogy

A Genealogical History of Henry Adams, of Braintree, Mass., and His Descendants; Also John Adams, of Cambridge, Mass., 1632-1897, edited by Andrew N. Adams (1898).