Book Reviews and Notices As patron of society he promoted Fulton's steamboat, but he expected a legal monopoly in reward. He engaged extensively in undertakings to improve agriculture, but membership in the agricultural society he founded was limited to "gentlemen." Among his equals he was a typical 18th-century social lion, but he was distinctly uncomfortable at political gatherings attended by his social inferiors. To Hamilton, who certainly needed no convincing, he wrote: "It is a sad misfortune that the more we know of our fellow creatures the less reason we have to esteem them" (p. 195). He often gave even more vehement expression of the same sentiment—in public. Finally, political offices appeared to him chiefly measures of social prestige; he was furious when his friend John Jay surpassed him in this respect by securing nomination for governor. In view of Livingston's role in the conclusion of peace after the Revolution and in the Louisiana Purchase it is unfortunate that his papers shed relatively little significant new light on those events. They do, however, as utilized by Mr. Dangerfield, add valuable depth to our understanding, particularly of the Louisiana Purchase. The New-York Historical Society can take just pride in this book. It is based very largely on the Livingston Papers acquired by the Society a few years ago and was undertaken by the author at the suggestion of Wayne Andrews when he was still Curator of Manuscripts. There is reason for pride, too, in that the project has been completed with thoroughness, perception, and literary skill. Charles Francis Adams, 1807-1886. By Martin B. Duberman. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, i960, xvi -f- 525 pages, illus., biblio., index. $7.50.) Reviewed by G. Bernard Noble, Director, Historical Office, Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State. The opening of the Adams papers to the public in 1954 offered a golden opportunity for researchers to delve into materials, previously available only to a select few, bearing on the lives of several generations of one of the most famous American families. Professor Duberman has taken full advantage of his opportunity to use these papers, and many other relevant sources, in writing the most authoritative biography to date on Charles Francis Adams, whose father and grandfather had both been Presidents of our country. This is a timely volume, following, as it does, some sixty years after the biography done by a son, C. F. Adams, Jr., which scarcely purports to be a full-length study, and makes far less use of the family papers. This Adams story tells of a third-generation descendant from men of light and leadership in American political life, fearful that he might not be able to justify his eminent heritage and measure up to the traditions 420