Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family

The Adams Family has never been matched in American history. As I hear and read about those running for president now, I cringe at the realization of how far our country has come since John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams fought to uphold the Constitution. They weren't popular, being outspoken in their views and refusing to back down. Unfortunately, there are few such leaders now.

Excellent copy of the book it was like new especially considering when it was first published. Would recommend them highly as they exceed how the book was classified.

These are my ancestors. The Adams family and my mother's family are relatives. Related to both presidents and many other well known Adams relatives.

Recommended to me by the historian at Christ Church. Love the generational scope of this story and references to so many personal correspondences.

To many the Adams Family consists of John, Abigail and John Quincy, but that is only the start of the story. It is the story of a dynasty that played a major role in American history for a century and a half. “Descent From Glory” introduces us to that amazing genealogical tale.This book covers four generation. The first is John, promoter of independence, congressman, diplomat, first vice-president and second president and Abigail, his faithful life partner who is, perhaps the first great woman in American history. The highlight of the second generation is John Quincy who, like his father, served as member of congress, diplomat and president, and shared some of the same qualities that irritated his contemporaries. John Quincy ended his career as Old Man Eloquent, the abolitionist of the House of Representatives. That was not the end of the story as his son, Charles Francis, would be the third in a row to serve as ambassador to the Court of St. James. While earlier generations served in eras of peace, it was Charles Francis who represented America’s interests in Britain during the Civil War with its issues of the Trent Affair, and the potential recognition of and sale of raiders to the Confederacy. The fourth generation had broader representation with Charles Francis, Jr. as a reformer of railroads, Henry and Brooks as historians and, in Henry’s case, political commentator, and John Quincy II as a political dilettante.The title is a bit harsh in characterization of its judgement on the Adams Family. Perhaps a more descriptive title would be Adaptions of a Family. Author Paul C. Nagel describes a family that first found its place in politics but adapted to changes in America as it drew away from politics to industry, scholarship and social commentary.The distinguishing feature of this tome is the focus it places on the Adams Family as a family, with its pride and heartbreak, successes and failures, loves and resentments. I have only mentioned the highlights but its years were crossed by alcoholism, suicides and failures to meet the ideals set for its founder. While individual biographies are helpful, it is worthwhile to read a book that ties them all together into an organic whole. “Descent From Glory” accomplishes that in spectacular fashion.

I've never been that interested in the Adamses, preferring Southern history instead, and I now see how my superficial knowledge of them could not have been more wrong. The Puritan killjoys who got up with the sun, worked hard all day with nary a murmur, served their country like all good patriots, and raised up some sort of righteous Presbyterian family was nowhere to be found. Instead there were kids who would do anything to get out of work, kids who hated school and were kicked out, drunkeness, suicide, mental illness, desperately terrible marriages... It reads like a telenovela.The beauty of Descent from Glory is that the people who made up the Adams family, from the infamous John and Abigail to the barely remembered Henry and "Sister Lou," come alive in the letters and papers they left behind, and I think Paul Nagel stitches them together masterfully. I am so tired of history lite! What good is it to know the dates and places of people if you don't know anything about THEM as people who lived and breathed?For example, I was looking up Henry Adams the other day. He was a grandson of JQA. I found a black and white photo of a balding middle-aged man with the beard fellows of the late 19th century fancied. A dull photo, really of what I might have imagined to be a dull man. But ah! Henry Adams was, in the words of his tragic wife Clover, "beyond all words, tenderer and better than all of you even." As a young boy his mother wrote to Charles Francis Adams, his father, "Henry is Henry, when in the house mostly curled up in your big chair with a book and good natured, of course." As a young man in search of an independent life away from the burden of being 'An Adams', he wrote his father, "I am actually becoming afraid to look at the future, and feel only utterly weak about it." I look at that old photo differently now.I also used to wonder why people in the 18th and 19th c. burned letters and journals when a loved one died, especially since I live in a time when people will put a photo of themselves on the toilet if it gets them 2 seconds of attention. Having seen how frank and open people were in their letters and journals, I understand the desire to blot out the darker sides and moments of their lives. I am very glad that this was not a universal practice as it would be a terrible loss to the world if the secret thoughts of people who have gone before us were obliterated forever.

I read this book in about one week. I found it very well written with logical conclusions and theories based on an extensive primary and secondary source material study, complex yet readable and extremely well researched. This is a book that anyone interested in American history and the complexities of the first 4 generations of the Adams family will appreciate. A masterful undertaking by the author...never boring and highly informative.