American classics

An abridgment of The Federalist, with notes and commentary.

"A selection from 'The memoirs of John Quincy Adams, comprising portions of his diary from 1795 to 1848.'"

"First edition." "Sources": p. 567-571.

This biography of the Secretary of State under President Grant received the Pulitzer Prize for biography. In the midst of Reconstruction following the Civil War, Fish was a commanding figure who was one of the ablest Cabinet members. His astute and patient diplomacy kept the peace in foreign and domestic affairs.

“Not a condensation of the author’s three volumes on the Civil war in his ‘History of the United States’ but a fresh study which makes use of the large amount of material on that period which has come to light in recent years. Good maps and an index are included with the text.” Book Review Digest “The student of war politics and of midcentury American diplomacy will find much to interest him in several of the chapters, for the volume is not, as its title might imply, a mere narrative of military operations. It is a discussion of national life in all its phases during a great and critical period of American history.” American Political Science Review — Standard Catalog for Public Libraries: History (H.W. Wilson) 1929

Notions of the Americans in considered Cooper's first work of non-fiction despite a thin overlay of character and plot. Written in the form of a travel narrative, it addresses the widespread ignorance he encountered in Europe about the people and institutions of the United States. It is an exuberant chant of praise for American representative democracy, encapsulating the utopian vision that compelled Cooper's writing career over three decades. The introduction draws on materials never before published. this edition, distinguished by the seal of the Center for Scholarly Editions, is the first resetting of the text since the initial American edition in 1828.