Propelled by the power of his pen and the clarity of his judgment, an ambitious young provincial lawyer named John Adams became a major figure in the American Revolution. This first of two volumes gathering his essential writings to 1783 includes the complete newspaper exchange between "Novanglus" (Adams) and "Massachusettensis" (Loyalist Daniel Leonard), as well as extensive diary excerpts and characteristically frank personal letters-many to his "dearest friend" Abigail-that convey the excitement and danger of the mounting crisis with Britain, from the Stamp Act riots of 1765, to the Boston Massacre and Tea Party, to the First Continental Congress, where Adams became a leader of the patriot cause. A companion volume carries the story forward to the Pace Treaty of 1783. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

This second of two volumes gathering the essential writings of one of the towering figures of the American Revolution traces John Adams's career from his leading role in the debate over independence (he was "our Colossus on the floor," remembered Thomas Jefferson), to his tireless efforts to establish the fledgling government of the United States and supply its army in the field, to his crucial diplomatic service in Europe, where he was hailed as "the George Washington of negotiation." It includes the highly influential pamphlet Thoughts on Government (1776); the "Report of a Constitution for Massachusetts," (1780) Adams's blueprint for what remains the world's oldest working political charter, and dozens of his characteristically frank and revealing personal letters, many to his "dearest friend" Abigail, extensive diary excerpts, and selected passages from his unfinished autobiography recalling his life during this period. A companion volume collects writing from 1755 to 1775. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

"... includes the complete newspaper exchange between Novanglus (Adams) and Massachusettensis (loyalist Daniel Leonard), as well as extensive diary excerpts and characteristically frank personal letters"--V.1 book jacket. "Traces John Adams' career from his leading role in the debate over independence, [...] to his tireless efforts to establish the fledgling government of the United States and supply its army in the filed, to his crucial diplomatic service in Europe [...]. It includes his highly influential 1776 pamphlet Thoughts on Government, dozens of his characteristically frank and revealing personal letters, [...] extensive diary excerpts. "--V.2 book jacket.

"Traces John Adams' career from his leading role in the debate over independence, [...] to his tireless efforts to establish the fledgling government of the United States and supply its army in the filed, to his crucial diplomatic service in Europe [...]. It includes his highly influential 1776 pamphlet Thoughts on Government, dozens of his characteristically frank and revealing personal letters, [...] extensive diary excerpts. "--Jacket.

In addition to being an uncompromising defender of liberty, esteemed diplomat, and successor to George Washington, John Adams was a passionate and prolific writer. Adams biographer John Patrick Diggins gathers an impressive variety of his works in this compact, original volume, including parts of his diary and autobiography, and selections from his rich correspondence with this wife, Abigail, Thomas Jefferson, and others. The Portable John Adams also features his most important political works: “A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law,” “Thoughts on Government,” “A Defense of Constitutions,” “Novanglus,” and “Discources in Davila.” There is no finer introduction to the protean genius of this seminal American philosopher. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Includes 430 letters—many published for the first time—to John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Mercy Otis Warren, James and Dolley Madison, and Martha Washington, among many others Abigail Adams was an unusually accomplished letter writer. Spirited and insightful, her correspondence offers a unique vantage on historical events in which her family played so prominent a role, while bringing vividly to life the everyday experience of American women in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Here are 430 letters—more than a hundred published for the first time—to John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Mercy Otis Warren, James and Dolley Madison, and Martha Washington, among many others. Including her famous call to “Remember the Ladies,” letters from the 1760s and 1770s offer an unrivalled portrait of the American Revolution on the home front. Travel to Europe in the 1780s opens a grand new field for her talents as social commentator and political advisor while her roles as vice presidential and presidential wife place her at the very heart of the nation’s founding. Also included are a chronology of Adams’s life, detailed notes, and extensively researched family trees. This volume is published simultaneously with John Adams: Writings from the New Nation 1784–1826, the third and final volume in the Library of America John Adams edition. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams presents the principal shorter writings in which Adams addresses the prospect of revolution and the form of government proper to the new United States. Though one of the principal framers of the American republic and the successor to Washington as president, John Adams receives remarkably little attention among many students of the early national period. This is especially true in the case of the periods before and after the Revolution, in which the intellectual rationale for independence and republican government was given the fullest expression. The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams illustrates that it was Adams, for example, who before the Revolution wrote some of the most important documents on the nature of the British Constitution and the meaning of rights, sovereignty, representation, and obligation. And it was Adams who, once the colonies had declared independence, wrote equally important works on possible forms of government in a quest to develop a science of politics for the construction of a constitution for the proposed republic.