Abigail Adams

By: Woody Holton

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Abigail Adams offers a fresh perspective on the famous events of Adams's life, and along the way, Woody Holton, a renowned historian of the American Revolution, takes on numerous myths about the men and women of the founding era. But the book also demonstrates that domestic dramas---from unplanned pregnancies to untimely deaths---could be just as heartbreaking, significant, and inspiring as the actions of statesmen and soldiers.

A special focus of the book is Adams's complex relationships: with her mother, sisters, and children; with her husband's famous contemporaries; and with Phoebe, one of her father's slaves. At the same time that John exhibited his own diplomatic skills on a better-known canvas, Abigail struggled to prevent the charitable gifts she gave her sisters from coming between them. In a departure from the persistently upbeat tone of most Adams biographies, Holton's work shows how frequently her life was marred by tragedy, making this the deepest, most humanistic portrayal ever published.

Using the matchless trove of Adams family manuscripts, the author steps back to allow Abigail to respond to her many losses in her own words. Holton reveals that Abigail Adams sharply disagreed with her husband's financial decisions and assumed control of the family's money herself---earning them a tidy fortune through her shrewd speculations (this during a time when married women were not permitted to own property). And he shows that her commitment to women's equality and education was intense and explicitly expressed and practical, from the more than two thousand letters she wrote over her lifetime to her final will (written in defiance of legislation prohibiting married women from bequeathing property).

Alternately witty, poignant, and uplifting, Holton's narrative sheds new light on one of America's best-loved but least-understood icons.

©2009 Woody Holton (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Insightful, sensitive, and original.... Here is a bounty of fine-grained social history as well as a feast of language, from the eye and the voice of a historian-poet." (Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People)

Quite a story

I really enjoyed this book! I really enjoy history and liked the historical aspect of the story. I was interested in Abigail after listening to the First Ladies of the White House book! She is a fascinating woman and love she documented with letters through her life to understand her more?

A Woman of Moral Courage

I share Audible with my husband & this was my selection after completing John Adams by David McCullough. if you love history, you will appreciate every detail of this remarkable woman's life. Narrated in such a compelling and sincere style, you live each momenr with Abigail, her family & friends. I was deeply moved by Abigail's faith & loyalty to her husband & God. Like all humans, she was flawed but her goodness surpassed any shortcomings she had. She is someone I would have liked to have known persobally and counted as a close friend. An incredible woman for the time she lived in and the adversities she overcame!

The author, as a male but true historian, has done a superb job of capturing the true essence of her life as a woman in the 18th century. The narrator read this history like a novel capturing the subtleties & nuances that transported you into Abigail's thoughts and actions. I found myself laughing, crying, and applauding Abigail's moral courage. I will listen to this book over and over again.

Thumbs up

Very engaging and well read! An excellent narrative of Abigail Adams' life through her letters and the broader scope of early America.

Well worth it

I give the narrator an 8 out of 10.
If your a fan of our founding fathers this book connects the dots and some missing information dealing many misunderstood situations of our history.
We also get an understanding of life as a woman in earlier times.

A Remarkable Woman

Fantastic book...especially if you've listened to John Adams like I did. I must comment once again on the remarkable and mellifluous voice of Cassandra Campbell. As soon as I noticed she was the reader I was sold. I highly recommend that you look for her when choosing a download.

Anyway, Abigail Adams. What an amazing woman she was. This book presents the other side of the the John Adams story. How she coped and ran the family during his extended absenses as a career public servant.

It was interesting to learn how archaic society's view of women was during that time and how she struggled for her own identity within those constraints.

From the book, John Adams, and hearing about the love letters they wrote, I had the impression that life between the two was all lovey dovey but it really wasn't according to this. Additionally, the book details the sensitive perspective of the family trials and tribulations as they relate to family relationships. Again, from the John Adams book, I knew of the key personal tragedies but they were told from John's male perspective. Not that any of the events were less painful to him but they were written with less emotion that a female does (we're just wired different).

I was most impressed with Abigail's financial savvy and contribution to the family's wealth through investing and her own business. This woman could do it all...and she did!

Remarkable...a life well lived.

Financial take on Adams's life

I hadn't known how clever Abigail Adams was with money. She used it to set her female relatives up with the closest thing to personal property they could possess.

Wait for the abridged version

The book has many good sides and it is based in a superb research and a virtuous use of the avalaible records to undo and redo what we thought we knew about A. Adams.
In this case, just to evoke the voice of the writer, I would have preferred a male narrator.
In addition, sometimes the pace of the book is too slow and a great lot of quotes repeat ideas the narrator had already proposed. I would encourage an abridged audio edition.

well researched

I loved the abundant primary resources! Those letters that another didn't enjoy, are what make this
book reliable and enjoyable. It gives us first hand words from the real people of influence who lived hundreds of years ago.

Very revealing

After hearing this book I realized more of the whole person who was Abigail Adams. I had never realized she was so controlling and racist although her racism seems to be more classism.

I found the narrator’s voice and delivery to be very pleasant and engaging but was amused by her difficulty with plural possesives. An example was the pronunciation of Shay’s as “Shayses”.

Overall this presentation was well worth the time invested.

Too much minutiae

I just finished the first leg of this book, and while it's clear that the author has done an amazing amount of research, and it shows Abigail Adams as a formidable woman of great talents, I could do without the crazy amount of detail into each small aspect of her role as head of the household in John's absence. The part where she repeatedly asks John to send her pins so that she can sell them at a profit is too lengthy, and frankly, not that interesting. While it's important to record the ways in which she found creative means to increase the family income, the section on her investment decisions gets tedious after a while. An editor should have pared it. I agree with the reviewer who said going for the abridged version would be smart.