John and Abigail Adams

I really enjoyed reading the letters that transpired between John and Abigail Adams; I think I enjoyed it so much because it was different from anything we had read up to this point. While I found it interesting to be reading letters written by out country's second president and the content within them discussing the current affairs and predicaments our country was dealing with, I found my attention drawing more to Adam's personal life. The introduction says that John Adams and his wife wrote over 300 letters to each other over the course of the marriage. I find this incredible in itself, as I can count the number of letters I've written by hand on less than ten fingers. It is evident that this couple had a strong and mutual trust for each other, when you look at all the political information John discloses to his wife in a time where any leaked information could be politically disastrous. One of the aspects that I liked most was that the letters between John and Abigail contained ordinary discussions along side the more historically important ones. For example, when Abigail discusses the loss of her husband's favorite horse or when John writes of his crossed disposition at learning of his family's sickness through that of others. What makes it even more interesting is that Abigail writes back to reprimand her husband that he has also been lacking in writing about his personal welfare and being. It is passages like these that ground and humanize historical figures like John Adams that making reading about them that much more enjoyable.