[Gutenberg 52766] • A History of the United States

The last literary work of the late President Adams was a school history of the United States. In this undertaking he was associated with Professor Trent of Columbia University. The book has been five years in the making, and the manuscript was finished and about half the proof corrected at the time of President Adam's death. Three principal objects in writing it are set forth in the preface:

“First, to present fully and with fairness the Southern point of view in the great controversies that long threatened to divide the Union.

“Second, to treat the Revolutionary War, and the causes that led to it, impartially and with more regard for British contentions than has been usual among American writers.

“Third, to emphasize the importance of the West in the growth and development of the United States.”

The text is intended to meet the requirements of the high-school course suggested by the Committee of Seven and already very widely adopted.

—The American Historical Review, July 1903.

Includes vintage illustration!