Abigail and John Adams: The Americanization of Sensibility Review

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Abigail and John Adams: The Americanization of Sensibility ReviewG. J. Barker-Benfield's book Abigail and John: The Americanization of Sensibility is different from the many other books published on these two, including the new book by Joseph Ellis First Family: Abigail and John Adams. Several of the reviewers of Ellis's work mention that there is little new in it. There have been so many books written about the founding mothers and fathers, it is hard to imagine there is anything new to say. But Barker-Benfield has done just that. Barker-Benfield's book focuses on sex and gender, and like his two previous books, is utterly original. His feminism, evident in all his work starting with The Horrors of the Half Known Life: Male Attitudes Toward Women and Sexuality in 19th America (1968), a landmark volume in the women's health movement, reissued by Routledge in 2000, contributes to this originality. Other feminists have described Abigail, but Barker-Benfield always studies women and men together (what they think of each other, and say about and to each other), and in so doing brings new insights. Abigail and John, is a long-awaited sequel to The Culture of Sensibility: Sex and Society in Eighteenth Century Britain (U Chicago 1996), the magnum opus of the culture of sensibility which situated the rise of a heightened consciousness of feeling to growing prosperity. In that book he describes the pleasure-seeking behaviors of women and men, including the sexual mores of both. Here too, he focuses not only on gender but also on sex, including the sexual flirtations between Abigail and John in their voluminous correspondence during the many years during which man and wife were separated. As in his earlier work, Barker-Benfield shows a keen ear for lubricity. The final chapters which recount the way John and Abigail managed, or more accurately mismanaged the courtship of their daughter Nabby, are riveting and heartbreaking. This dramatic story would lend itself to a Merchant and Ivory-type movie. In sum, Barker-Benfield has produced another tour de force. His style of writing is British. American readers may find they have to work a bit harder than they are accustomed to do, but the effort is well worth it. Barker-Benfield's learned prose is elegant, free of jargon, and often witty. While he is not there yet, in good time he will no doubt surpass the genius of renowned humorist Jasper Wilson.Abigail and John Adams: The Americanization of Sensibility Overview

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