"Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America," by Douglas R. Egerton. Basic Books, 480 pages. $35. Erik J. Chaput Special to The Journal Over the ...

Every person clutched a piece of paper, a card, a phone with some text on the screen, each waiting patiently to deliver a single sentence from a book or ... the whole Egerton family, and the ...