The Jeffersonian Transformation: Passages From The "History" (New York Review Books Classics)
"In hisHistory of the United States of America during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson, first published in 1889 and completed three years later by hisHistory of the United States of America during the Administrations of James Monroe, Adams drew on this mix of disillusioned lucidity and cautious hopefulness to show just how America became America. Although often invoked, the "History," is less often read. That is a great pity. Adams's work is a masterpiece, the closest thing to an American epic we possess...readers daunted by its bulk may prefer to begin withThe Jeffersonian Transformation: Passages from the History, edited and introduced by Garry Wills." --The New York Sun"New York Review Books Classics has published an excellent abridgment of Henry Adams' nine-volume "History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison" asThe Jeffersonian Transformation. Garry Wills contributes an introduction, but whoever labored to produce the abridgment is uncredited. No matter. The word "magisterial" is tossed around whenever anybody writes a ponderous tome with any claim to definitive status. But Adams' book truly deserves the term, both for his grasp of the overall, and his prose, which has a gorgeous rolling cadence." --Austin American-Statesman