Papers of John Adams: Volumes 1 and 2

Taken together with the celebrated Diary and Autobiography, the Earliest Diary, the Adams Family Correspondence, and the Legal Papers of John Adams, [the Papers of John Adams] constitute as revealing and complete a documentation of the development, both personal and public, of a successful revolutionist as modern history affords In [these documents] the writer bequeathed to posterity a means of sensing some of the excitement, the importance, the fears, the apprehensions of the decade in which the real American revolution was taking placein short, the flavor of the times. -- Carl Bridenbaugh * Times Literary Supplement * The great themeis that of independence; all else is subordinate to it. The reader may trace here the evolution of John Adams thought during this crucial year His Plan of Treaties became a model in use down to World War II and his Thoughts on Government was designed to unite north and south on basic principles. No matter, it seems, was too small for his attention nor too large to attempt solution. A colossus indeed! The editing of this work is admirable in every way. The footnotes are exhaustive but never excessive or boring. The introductory essays are illuminating. This is an elegant and inspiring work. -- Robert C. Gilmore * Historical New Hampshire *

Gregg L. Lint is Series Editor for the Papers of John Adams of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Descriptive List of Illustrations Introduction 1. An Overview of the General Correspondence and Other Papers of John Adams 2. John Adams as Public Servant 3. John Adams as Revolutionist 4. The Editorial Method 5. A Note on the Status of The Adams Paper Acknowledgments Guide to Editorial Apparatus 1. Textual Devices 2. Adams Family Code Names 3. Descriptive Symbols 4. Location Symbols 5. Other Abbreviations and Conventional Terms 6. Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited Papers of John Adams, September 1755-- October 1773