Jean H. Baker

The Stevensons

A Biography of an American Family

"[A] sweeping narrative, beautifully written and scrupulously evenhanded, [that] does full justice to Stevenson and his people. . . . Ambitious, elegiac, and provocative."--Richard Norton Smith, Chicago Tribune, front page review

Jean H. Baker tells the compelling story of four generations of an American family and its most celebrated memberthe high-minded, eloquent, and perennial also-ran icon of liberal politics, Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1900-1965). The Stevensons is also a book about the relationship of a family to its times: With Baker's characteristically deft blend of the public and private, set on a broad canvas, the Stevenson story becomes an American saga.

Baker's biography "affords [Stevenson's] life a depth, historical and personal, that few other writers have acknowledged" (Kirkus Reviews).

"A valuable study of one of the most frustratingly elusive figures of mid-century American politics, rich in political anecdote but rigorously analytical."--Michael Kenney, Boston Globe

Jean H. Baker is professor of history at Goucher College and author of Mary Todd Lincoln (also a Norton paperback), described by the New York Times as "a striking success . . . absorbing . . . utterly compelling."

"A vivid portrait. . . . It is a great American story."--Baltimore Sun

"Scrupulous and perceptive."--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World


1997 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-31598-3 / Photographs / 592 pages / American history/biography
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