Abigail Adams (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series) - Hardcover

Holton, Woody

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9781410424044: Abigail Adams (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410424049 ISBN 13: 9781410424044

Publisher: Thorndike Press, 2010

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In this vivid new biography of the most illustrious woman of America's founding era, prize-winning historian Woody Holton offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Abigail Adams' life story and of women's roles in the creation of the republic. Using previously overlooked documents from a host of archives, Holton shows that the wife of the second president of the United States was far more charismatic and influential than historians have realized.

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About the Author:

Abner Linwood "Woody" Holton, III, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Richmond in Virginia and is a member of the Richmond Research Institute. He has published two award-winning books: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2007), a finalist for the National Book Award; and Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (1999). Holton received his B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. in History from Duke, and is currently an associate professor at the University of Richmond. Holton has received numerous awards, including three from the Organization of American Historians (OAH). His first book, Forced Founders (in which he argued that Jefferson, Washington, and other Virginia gentlemen rebelled against Britain partly in order to regain control of Native Americans, slaves, and small farmers), received the OAH’s prestigious Merle Curti award for social history. In 2006, the OAH named Holton one of its Distinguished Lecturers. Holton’s article, “‘Divide et Impera’: The Tenth Federalist in a Wider Sphere,” was selected by a panel of distinguished scholars for publication in the OAH’s Best American History Essays 2006. Holton received a Guggenheim Fellowship for the 2008-09 academic year to write ABIGAIL ADAMS and today lives in Richmond with his wife Gretchen Schoel (the director of an organization combating prejudice against Arabs and Muslims) and their daughter Beverly.

From AudioFile:

Holton seamlessly blends Abigail Adams's copious letters and journals with explanatory text. Narrator Cassandra Campbell's delivery of this well-researched biography is equally smooth. Employing only subtle changes in pitch and pace as events and emotions demand, Campbell gives Adams voice and differentiates a wide-ranging cast of additional correspondents. Holton uses Adams's writings, and those of her contemporaries, to create a portrait of her as a significant public figure and a devoted wife and mother. But he also depicts her as an independent, intelligent, resourceful woman whose attitudes and actions frequently placed her ahead of her time. Campbell's narration especially shines in her portrayal of those attributes. M.O.B. � AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

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