The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics

Placeholder author icon
By William J. Cooper ’62

Published Dec. 14, 2017

John Quincy Adams has been relegated to the sidelines of our history books, remembered for an ineffective presidency during troubled times, but William J. Cooper ’62 uses this biography to argue otherwise. The Lost Founding Father (Liveright) highlights how Adams was the only political mind in his generation to have such close links to the founding fathers, and details his heroic advocacy of abolition after his lackluster presidency.

Paw in print

Image
The January 2026 cover of PAW, featuring a man and a woman and the headline "Empower Couple."
The Latest Issue

January 2026

Giving big with Kwanza Jones ’93 and José E. Feliciano ’94; Elizabeth Tsurkov freed; small town wonderers.