mcculloch also likes abigail a great deal, but she is a subordinative figure in the book. she shows up only as a complement to john adams, and he doesn't give her what i call agency. that is, she reacts throughout the book. she-- you don't see her as an innovator. for instance, this passage that i just read you about remember the ladies, he does nothing with that. he does absolutely nothing. he quotes the letter and then goes on to something else. so, his abigail and john are out of balance for one thing, but the other thing is, he has john adams and the political and diplomatic world and i don't have to do that so much because he has done it and i have done more in the family world. well the political and diplomatic is there as well. there is also a difference of interpretation. my background is a feminist scholar. i am in scholar of women, and historian of women and it is most important to me that we understand that women were part of the historical past. and so my emphasis on abigail and on what women do and on the daily events in the women's lives is recorded in this b