If the Growth Continues otherwise it maybe breaking down. I dont have great faith to predict that. Maybe it is already happening. It isnt going to continue the rapid growth unless it extends to increased in political freedom. [ applause ] thank you very much. Visit the authors website for more information williameasterly. Org. You are watching booktv with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Television for serious readers. Here are programs to look out for this weekend on after wards we explore the relationships in all of the president s bankers. Recalling the german offensive among americas east coast in 1924. And former assistant attorney general john yu argues International Law is not effective against nations. Visit us at booktv. Org for the full list of books. Diane jacobs is next on booktv. She recalls the relationship between first Lady Abigail Adams and her sisters. They stayed in contact all of their lives sharing their personal setbacks and achievements. This is about 45 minutes. [ applause ]. Can you hear me now . Good. I am so flattered that i have this overflowing audience. I am sorry anyone who is uncomfortable. I assume you will be getting chairs that is what i hear. As carolyn said, this is my book dear abigail and it is the story of three 18th century women. Mary cranch, Abigail Adams and Elizabeth Shaw peabody. And i know Everybody Knows who Abigail Adams is. Living in this environment, you could tell me a lot about abigail that i still dont know. But why, as carolyn said, why is it that abigail is the one game that we all know . And it really is because of her man. Because she married john adams. I must say being here today i feel like i have come home because i have come to john and abigails home and home that all Three Sisters spent a lot of time in. But, the other two sisters that i think you know less about, i argue in my book, even though they didnt mary president s, they are equally important and remarkable women. First, there is the older sister mary cranch and he she was the ungrowned green queen of the family. Higherarchy was important and she was born first and very important. And especially after her brother was disinherited by her father she was really the one who inherited the first sons role because there was no brother. And then when she grew up she proved herself to be a wonderful administrator. Even though she was a woman and couldnt be elected to any position, she was the de facto mayor of quincy. And her husband would be appointed to positions but everyone knew mary would take care of everything. And then there is a Elizabeth Shaw peabody who was the youngest sister and thought neither of her older sisters gave her enough attention and she was clamoring listening to me and she was the most literate and best educated of the three of them. She had the ambition when she was young to grow up and become a published writer. A published letter writer. It was the golden age of letter writing. She wanted her letters to be pubishlished and i will let you read the book to find out if that happens. But she did become the founder of the second coeducational school in america along with her husband. So that is impressive. The work entitled was threefold cord and i think of the book that way still. It speaks to the interwovenness of these Three Sisters and the intensity of their bond. A threefold cord speaks to a cord that is wound over three times and it is very hard to break a cord that is wound over three times. This is just referred to threefold cord the sisters referred abigail wrote something that was particularly moving in a letter to her son john quincy. She said never was there a stronger affection than that binds of a threefold cord than your mama and here two sisters. I wanted the reader to know while i am speaking about three b biological sisters living 250 years ago and what is true for them can be true for women who are not biologically related but perhaps best friends. So i thought before i went into more detail i would say a little bit about how i came to write the book in the first place. I just finished a book own the great radical femenist craft. I loved the 19th century with the drama and the guillotine and the revolution and the ideas. I loved what they will had to say and i loved that the character i was writing about had read all of these people. I thought okay, let me find some other man or woman and follow them through the same period. And i am a frankfile as many Close Friends can tell you. I thought if i can think of a french person i can do paris and the french revolution all over again. But i was having trouble thinking of a french person that might fit into my category. And a colleague said one day, what do you have against americans . And i said i dont have anything against americans. I am one. I was in the shower a week later and this is a true tale i remembered a booked i had reviewed for the Village Voice 15 years earlier that was called the adams woman and i believe it was there in the library. It was mostly about Abigail Adams and her daughterinlaw married to john quincy. But there were tantalizing sections about abigails sisters and as i was standing there with soap down my back i had the image flash before me of the last line in the epilogue and it said some day someone will write a biography about the Three Sisters and i thought aha that is me. But after that, there was a lot of work to be done. That aha moment is great and then afterwards the grown of do i have the material to write this book. I knew i had the Massachusetts Historical Society. I knew i had this wonderful adams sight and they would have a lot on abigail site but then my question was what about mary and elizabeth . Are there letters from them . What did abigail say to them . What did they say to abigail . And what did they say to each other . I heard there is a nice collection of Elizabeth Shaw peabodys younger sister correspondence at the library of congress. I went down there and i was delighted. I found letters from the time she was a teenager and she was writing her cousin isaac who was at harvard. He would give her books to read and she would read them and write back to him about the books. She was very feisty. You can see how isaac was baiting her. She wrote her at one point you must really love this collection of madam because you are just like her. She didnt think much of marriage and neither did you. Well, elizabeth was thinking of marriage and she was thinking of marrying him. So she was strong in her reply. I had elizabeth and i had her when she grew older and there were tragedies in her lives and i will leave you to read the book. But there was mary cranch and i thought what do we have on her. She is the eldest and abigail looked up to her. But what else . And did she have any ideas . I went to the Albany Institute of art and there is an amazing collection there. They had a letter that she says to abigail dont you think it is silly that men think we dont have the same intellects we have . Now today that is obvious, but at the time it was anything but obvious. Everybody presumed a woman was given two things an intellect and a uterus. If she used her mind, she could not use her uterus. And if she bore children she could only think about shopping because she had used her one instrument. So mary is saying this and speaking about the ungendered mind meant a lot me. I realized i was going to learn more about their thoughts on the power of women. Not the rights, but the capacity of them the feeling there was a strong intellect of women and also tutored their daughters in the same way they tutored their son. I had a lot of Research Material i saw. And i was going to have to pick and chose because the Massachusetts Historical Society as well as these two other libraries had so much information that i was going to have to decide what to write about. But i hope i did manage to do that. After i came out with the three characters and i thought i had enough Research Material, i had the problem of how i was going to structure the book. I have written two other biographies with one character and it was quite easy. The structure, not the writing of the biographies. Now i had three people and i had to see there world through three different perspectives. I thought i would read a little from the first chapter of the book to give you an idea of how i approached the sisters and also of who these sisters were. It would have been obvious to anyone who met them that abigail, mary and betsy were sisters. Abigail was darker and taller and betsy was slimmer but all were slender, narrow mouths, shining brown hair and clear skin. They had dark brown eyes that conveyed authority and they shared the passion for doing good but were surprising delicate. They were the first to catch colds for the last to recover. Abigail was paralyzed when she was young and her child birth was much harder. It was a battle with death to tear care of her. Betsy was ordered after one illness not to read, write or even think. It was like it attacked her body or mood or she would be impossible to live with abigail observed. Mary, with her pleasing ways, seemed most like her mother. She seethed at the neglect of her mom. Method was wanted but we had no one to point us to. Our parents felt the necessity of keeping us from scenes of devulging and left the rest to nature. Mary was a dutiful first born and abigail was wild. In her teens, abigail committed the act of denying her mothers most innocent request. Abigail was sent away from a long visits to her grandmother quincy who she sometimes thought loved more than her mother because grandma didnt compare her to mary or rebuke her more than once were a crime. And betsy was less free to express herself. She could not run off to her grandmother because she was younger and like her brother, always had duties to learn. She grasped every free moment to read. She had a cultivated taste that would have ranged wider if one duty or another wasnt always calling her from her fathers books. That is my approach to the Three Sisters. I know it just gives you a little taste. I hope you have a feeling of who they are via each other. These are my main characters but not my only one. There are two other very important characters in this book i realized. And one is the one i was most determined to keep out of the book. John adamdams. I thought so much has been said. There is the most wonderful book about john adams and who needs me to add anything . I realized i needed him because so many of the great events in abigails life but in the lives of the other two sisters revolve around what john adams was doing. So i thought okay, i am going to take him on, and i hope he hasnt overwhelmed the book, i dont think he has. But i feel like he is an important part of it. I feel like i have added something fresh to what we know about john adams. We know what a wonderful husband he was, devoted to children, but i hope that i am giving you a feeling for what he was like as a brother in law, particularly to marys husband, Richard Cranch, who was a very close friend of his. He knew Richard Cranch before he knew abigail. And also as an uncle. And john adams is frequently known as someone who would not do favors. His best friends would say can you get me a little job in government . No. Even his soninlaw he said i am not going to help until the end. But he felt warmly toward his nephews and this won one is the one that mary said he had so many oddities he will never do anything in the public light. But john adams said he is my nephew and got him a job as a secretary and he performed so well in that job we went on to have a to fruit full life. And this other nephew was mary cranchs son, william, who was one of the midnight judges appointed by adams. My book begins in 1765 when britain imposes the first act of punishment on the colony. The stamp act. It ends when adam loses to jefferson and abigail goes home to her sisters at last. The times are my fifth character because they are important to all of the sisters. Of course to abigail who is in the lime light with john, but really no less during the revolution to mary and elizabeth. They were equally excited, terrified, by the battle of boston. And they were equally astonished and overjoyed when the french navy arrived at the last minute at york town and america had won the revolution at last. So these times are very important to the book. They are the times that they lived through. And also, what was important for me was that they lived through the times through the ideas of the time. And because of what was happening, because in america, we were getting the opportunities to start a nation anew, they had opinions on what it was like to live under a monarc and they had ideas on what the ideal nation state should be. And i found there were two very large impacts on their visions, on all of their visions. And one was the enlightment. They had all read the books of the enlightment and russo with views on quality and the general will and that had a big impact. They felt strongly about quality between the races. Abigail said to john i dont understand how someone in virginia can have the same passion we have for a revolution for the rights of man and women because they keep slaves. So they had very strong ideas about equality. On the other hand, they were puritans and for puritans the most important thing in the world was order. And order for government was particularly necessary. And in order for there to be order they believed there had to be higherarchy and that was why the oldest child was important and one man had to bow to another man and one family had a better pugh in church than another. These two were competing with each other in their views of what the ideal nation state should be. I had my characters now and i want to be an equal opportunity biographer and if anything push abigail to the side and say you had your turn lets hear from the others. In each chapter i wanted to divide it in three and do one third on abigail, one third on elizabeth and one third on mary. I tried that for four chapters and it was a fiasco. I said there is no way. We are not getting a narrative of this. I let the story pull me along. In one chapter you will find it is abigail. And she is going off to paris and she is going off to london and i am trusting that everyone will realize, particularly because of the letters she wrote home, they are embroiled in this and they were. When abigail would write a letter it was known she was writing it for the whole neighborhood and mary got the pleasure of having everyone in the neighborhood come over and she would read the letter aloud. And there were chapters where mary is trying to find a minister for the first church of quincy. And she is the most important person. In fact, even john adams thinks she is the most important person in quincy. One day, abigail catches him opening a letter that mary has written to her. And she is furious she says how can you open a bet letter and he said it isnt just any letter it is from mary and there is no that knows more than mary that i am interested in. And there is a lot of on elizabeth. She is the sister that endures the most and she is the pr prettiest and she stayed the best looking one. She was a magnificent looking woman. She was very much in love when she got married and things happen. I spend quite a bit of time with her as well. So i turn out not to be an equal opportunity biographer but i would like to read to you a little bit about and i sort of share abigails view but a little bit about how abigail felt on equality. This is in a chapter that is right after john adams has been elected Vice President and abigail has left mary behind in quincy and gone off to new york. Two weeks later, mary explicitly acknowledged the wide gap between her lot in life and her sisters. You are in the midst of the busy world she wrote abigail finding it safely in new york and finding john much heathier than she thought. John was always saying he was dieing so she would come. She was swept up in the social whirl. The contrast in their lives had not escaped abigail who wrote home to a statement of the people she loves. I have a statement for my near and dear friends, and that is a desire to watch over my conduct and any time they see me changing arising from the situation in lmy life i beg the make me aware of it. I know mankind are prone to deceive themselves she added. But her private words for mary reflect a deeper view of connection. No stroke of luck she felt could separate sisters. Their souls were intertwined from birth and abigail founded natural to go over johns approval and using her daughters a go between sent mary all of the pocket money she could spare from her small budget. Anticipating her sisters a anguish. Reverse the matter and ask if you would not do as much for me or elizabeth. Fate wasnt a democratic process in abigails view. Nor did she think much of equality on earth. Higher archy guarantees orderer but family ran on a loftier sister. Her and her sisters only differed in birth order. Otherwise they were always equal. I had like to hear any questions you may have for me. Yes . Who is the fifth character . I thought i made it clear this time. The fifth character was the times. Yes . You mentioned that the what school . The Atkins Academy when was in new hampshire. This was the second school. What was so interesting about it was that first of all, the sisters sent their children to the to elizabeths first husband. And then their children sent their children to her second husbands school. But they would write each other and say this isnt because of the husbands. This is because our sister is so literate and she is sure to instill the love of reading in them. It was a bording school. It turned out to be very nice boarding grand children and great grandchildren went there. How did you get such insight from the personality . There were millions of letters. I just named a few. They loved each other. It is good thing i had elizabeth being competitive or i would have a had a dull story of these women who couldnt do enough for each other. Mary did feel they said we feel each others pain. And mary said at one point we are better wives than anyone will ever know. And they saw themselves really as equals. And so mary was very happy to do everything for abigails house when abigail was away being the wife of the first ambassador to england and then ultimately the second president of the United States because she felt that yes, you know, she is off there having such a hard time i have to help her out. And on the other hand, abigail felt i have to send silks home from the london and my sisters anything i can because i am having this opportunity. So they did feel so connected. Yes . Anything about phobe . Well, she was a slave for their father and he gave them the choice of freeing them or keeping her a slave and they freed her. Abigail had phobe and her husband living in her house while she was in london. Under marys supervision . Absolutely. They were all master administrators. Yes . It seems the times were the fifth party to this whole thing and abigail and john seemed to recognize that the times played the times they were in was a major role in all of their lives, did the other women know . Very much. Richard cranch, who was marys husband, was in the state legislator, he was a judge and he was very much part of what was happening. But they saw this times as they saw we have a chance to make a nation. First of all, they thought lets get through this revolution and win it. And that totally poccupied them. They had the chance to starting anew. And they had read the greeks and romans and spoke on a high level about what their choices were. Any famous decendants of the two sisters . There is one that is famous to me. I was extremely lucky. I am in several groups but one is called women writing womens lives and the head of the seminar came up to me when i announced this and said i am the five great grand daughter of mary cranch. She said i have all of this information and had private daughters of marys daughter. She was just a major help to me. And subsequently she is so nice. I signed nine books for her. She went into the independent bookstore and she is sending it to all of her relatives. Im hear happy to be associated with them. Yes . Did john every court mary before he courted . No, he came in the house after richard was courting mary. Richard cranch is the one that everybody gives credit to for educating and getting these girls to read important books. They were very curious and went into their Fathers Library but they had no one to guide them and Richard Cranch is from england and he came in one day because their father was the minister and he had the most books in the community and so he came for dinner and either because he immediately fell in love with 15yearold mary or because he was a great guy he said you look interested and he came back and tutored them and that is why elizabeth, who was the youngest at the time, is the best educated of all of them because she had the longest time with him. Did you get information from the Quincy Library down here . Well, i got a lot of information from this site. I am trying to think, i probably did. I got a lot from the former minter of the church as well minister i am not sure how much i got from the Quincy Library. That is the First National library of the adams. Yes, i definitely did. And so much in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Sometimes there were d duplications. Did they every argue . Major arguments . That was when they were young. It was with elizabeth. Mary and abigail were joined at the hip. But elizabeth was six years younger than abigail so they really felt like abigail, in particular, felt like she should listen to us. They had very strong not mary so much. Mary, i think, kind of stayed out of it. But abigail had strong ideas about who elizabeth should and shouldnt marry. She was urging her to come to button because she had a suitor in boston and urged elizabeth, you know this is a great time to come to boston, i am hear and so and so was there as well. And then elizabeth fell in love with the man she married, john shaw, and for some reason, and the only thing i could find in any of the letters was she was a calvinist and they were an anticalvinist but she hated john shaw. John didnt. John said i would not congrats late her in a million years she went into the wedding and when she wrote how is everything like the mother hen and when she got out there was silence. Then john was sent off to europe and abigail was devastated. And elizabeth, who could read people very well, at that point she wrote to abigail not saying why havent you written me or why dont you care if i like married like or at least as nice as our sister. She said for some people this would be a wonderful thing to get rid of your husband, but for you this is a tragedy and i want to send my sympathy, because she lived a lot with the two of them, and she said this is awful and i want you to know i feel it for you. At that point, abigail got off her high horse and she said well, how are you . How is your husband, mr. Shaw . I am thinking of you as well. So it was resolved. Also, i think because abigail wasnt married. She was the little sister and wanted to be older than someone. When she was in europe, she heard from Mary Elizabeth was sick and elizabeth was trying fto get up and take care of the school and she wrote a better you cannot do this. You must stay in bed. This is ridiculous. Then she thought about it and her children were boarding with elizabeth at the time. And she thought maybe i have been a little hard and wrote to elizabeth and said i am sorry about the tone i took. I know you have a grown woman but i just care about you. And elizabeth wrote back of course, i never mistook it anything you have ever said, even when we were younger, to be, you know, calling on your eldership. I knew it was because you loved me so much. There continued to be a little bit of rivalry but very little the older they got. Yes . It sounds like abigail had help growing up. How did she adjust once she was married to adams with no help around the house . Did she like it . Well they were all housekeepers but they had some help. They had their daughters initially i think their mother and i know that their mother and even their father came to their houses to them. And then their daughters were raised to work in the house with them. They were tutored and their minds were taken care of but they helped in the house and there was wash day and i explored that with betsy cranch; daughter of mary cranch. Abigail brought two servants to europe and she thought that was fine. This is a woman and man i trust and they can take care of everything. And then she arrived in paris and found out someone does our hair, someone puts your dress earnin somebody does one room and