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September 17, 2009
For Immediate Release
For more information: William Cobb (801) 863-8846
University Marketing & Communications: Erin Spurgeon, (801) 863-6807
Written by: Alex Strickland (801) 863-6351
Utah Valley University will host historian and author Dr. Edith Gelles on Sept. 21, for a lecture about the lives of John and Abigail Adams. The 7 p.m. presentation in the UVU Library Lecture Hall is the first in the 2009-2010 Turning Point in History series hosted by the UVU history department.
Following the talk Gelles will sign copies of her latest book, "Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage."
Though he was one of our nation’s founding fathers, John Adams never enjoyed the mythology or popularity bestowed on his contemporaries like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. That was until recently, when Adams has been the subject of a high-profile biography by popular historian David McCullough and a TV miniseries on HBO.
"We thought now that the University has this ‘engagement’ theme going that it’s really important to reach out to the city and have them come too," said Turning Points organizer and UVU history professor William Cobb. "By having someone talk about Abigail and John, it’s a topic everyone will be interested in."
Abigail, the wife of the United States’ second president, provides historians with a rare look into the daily life and thoughts of a colonial-era woman. Her extensive legacy of letters and writing provide a deep well for scholars like Gelles to draw from.
"For me it was love at first letter," Gelles said.
The Stanford University-based historian said she was searching for a figure that would that would allow her to delve into women’s history during the colonial period. Abigail Adams ended up being the natural choice as she is one of the only women of the day who recorded her life in her own writing.
"Abigail’s letters are the best chronicle that exists of women’s experience in the time of the Revolutionary War," Gelles said. "No other woman has left such an expansive record of what women’s lives were like. And her letters are a delight to read; she had a literary soul."
As for the second president himself, Gelles said John Adams left a more authentic view of himself in the historical record than Washington or Jefferson.
"He was expressive in a way that the others weren’t," Gelles said. "Washington and Jefferson burned their personal papers and both of them were reticent men. Adams was a great public speaker and didn’t censor himself."
That portrait of a more authentic figure from the nation’s past is more appealing in today’s day and age, according to Gelles, when the population is more interested in real people and their flaws.
"We look at people now in a way that we didn’t in the past," she said. "We can acknowledge Adams as a real human being and accept all of him."
Cobb said that Gelles would also sit down with history students during the day and talk with them about how historians use primary documents like the Adams’ letters to interpret the past. And then the more formal evening session will be a learning experience for both history students and the public.
"We encourage everyone to come and bring a friend and bring a question," Cobb said.
The event is free and open to the public. Gelles will also speak the following day, Sept. 22, at 10 a.m. in the Orem Public Library Media Auditorium.
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