John Quincy Adams and the Public Virtues of Diplomacy

Although John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was one of nineteenth-century America's most accomplished diplomats and statesmen, very little has been written on his diplomatic philosophy. This thought-provoking study by Greg Russell brings together for the first time an investigation of Adams's literary, philosophical, and political careers. Studying Adams's statesmanship as an expression of distinct intellectual and diplomatic traditions, Russell offers a thorough review of Adams's grounding in classical and Christian traditions and demonstrates the roles those traditions played in his understanding of American constitutionalism, statesmanship, and citizenship.