| Contents |
Origins, definitions, and social circumstances -- The metropolitan sources of the Adamses' views of sensibility -- The meanings of sensibility -- The theory of gendered sensibility -- Social circles and the reformation of female manners -- Young American women enter the world -- Particular applications -- A woman's struggle over sensibility -- Sensibility and reform -- Abigail's perspective, public versus private -- John Adams and the reformation of male manners -- The pleasures and pains of public life -- Private perpetuation -- Raising children with sensibility -- A reformed rake? -- The question answered -- Conclusion -- The Americanization of sensibility. |
| Abstract |
Draws on the correspondence between Abigail and John Adams during the American Revolution to explore a relationship threatened by separation, a country in its infancy, and the earliest understandings of what it means to be American. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (p. [437]-490) and index. |
| LCCN | 2010008035 |
| ISBN | 9780226037431 (cloth : alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 0226037436 (cloth : alk. paper) |
