Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the
Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents.
As a young
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
graduate, he served as secretary to his father,
Charles Francis Adams,
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
's ambassador to the United Kingdom. The posting influenced the younger man through the experience of wartime diplomacy, and absorption in English culture, especially the works of
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
. After the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, he became a political journalist who entertained America's foremost intellectuals at his homes in Washington and Boston.
During his lifetime, he was best known for ''
The History of the United States of America 1801–1817
''The History of the United States of America 1801–1817'', also known as ''The History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison'', is a nine-volume history written by American intellectual ...
'', a nine-volume work, praised for its literary style, command of the documentary evidence, and deep (family) knowledge of the period and its major figures.
His posthumously published memoir, ''
The Education of Henry Adams
''The Education of Henry Adams'' is an autobiography that records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams (1838–1918), in his later years, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sh ...
'', won the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
and went on to be named by the
Modern Library
The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...
as the best English-language nonfiction book of the 20th century.
Early life
He was born in Boston on February 16, 1838, into one of the country's most prominent families. His parents were
Charles Francis Adams Sr.
Charles Francis Adams Sr. (August 18, 1807 – November 21, 1886) was an American historical editor, writer, politician, and diplomat. As United States Minister to the United Kingdom during the American Civil War, Adams was crucial to Union effort ...
(1807–1886) and Abigail Brooks (1808–1889). Both his paternal grandfather,
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
, and great-grandfather,
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
, one of the most prominent among the
Founding Fathers, had been U.S. Presidents. His maternal grandfather,
Peter Chardon Brooks
Peter Chardon Brooks (January 6, 1767 – January 1, 1849) was a wealthy Massachusetts merchant.
Early life
Brooks born in North Yarmouth, Maine, on January 6, 1767. His parents were the Rev. Edward Brooks and Abigail Brown. In 1769, the fami ...
, was one of Massachusetts' most successful and wealthiest merchants. Another great-grandfather,
Nathaniel Gorham
Nathaniel Gorham (May 27, 1738 – June 11, 1796; sometimes spelled ''Nathanial'') was an American Founding Father, merchant, and politician from Massachusetts. He was a delegate from the Bay Colony to the Continental Congress and for six months ...
, signed the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
.
![Henry Brooks Adams, Harvard graduation photo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Henry_Brooks_Adams%2C_Harvard_graduation_photo.jpg)
After his graduation from Harvard University in 1858,
he embarked on a
grand tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
of Europe, during which he also attended lectures in
civil law at the
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
.
In his 50s, he was initiated into the
Phi Kappa Psi
Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded by William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore in Widow Letterman's home on the campus of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pen ...
fraternity as an honorary member at the
1893 Columbian Exposition by
Harris J. Ryan, a judge for the exhibit on electrical engineering. Through that organization, he was a member of the
Irving Literary Society.
During the Civil War
Adams returned home from Europe in the midst of the heated presidential election of 1860. He tried his hand again at law, taking employment with Judge
Horace Gray
Horace Gray (March 24, 1828 – September 15, 1902) was an American jurist who served on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and then on the United States Supreme Court, where he frequently interpreted the Constitution in ways that increa ...
's
Boston firm, but this was short-lived.
His father, Charles Francis Adams Sr., was also seeking re-election to the US House of Representatives.
[Henry Adams, ''The Education of Henry Adams'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961), chapters 7–15, and Contosta, ch. 2.] After his successful re-election, Charles Francis asked Henry to be his private secretary, continuing a father-son pattern set by John and John Quincy and suggesting that Charles Francis had chosen Henry as the political scion of that generation of the family. Henry shouldered the responsibility reluctantly and with much self-doubt. "
had little to do", he reflected later, "and knew not how to do it rightly."
[''The Education of Henry Adams'', p. 101.]
During this time, Adams was the anonymous Washington correspondent for
Charles Hale
Charles Hale (1831–1882) of Boston was an American legislator and diplomat. Intermittently from 1855 to 1877, he served in the Massachusetts state House and Senate. He was Speaker of the House in 1859. In the 1860s he lived in Cairo, Egypt, as ...
's ''Boston Daily Advertiser''.
London (1861–68)
On March 19, 1861,
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
appointed Charles Francis Adams Sr.
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
The United States ambassador to the United Kingdom (known formally as the ambassador of the United States to the Court of St James's) is the official representative of the president of the United States and the Federal government of the United S ...
. Henry accompanied his father to London as his private secretary. He also became the anonymous London correspondent for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. The two Adamses were kept very busy, monitoring Confederate diplomatic intrigues and trying to obstruct the construction of Confederate
commerce raiders
Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than enga ...
by British shipyards (see
Alabama Claims
The ''Alabama'' Claims were a series of demands for damages sought by the government of the United States from the United Kingdom in 1869, for the attacks upon Union merchant ships by Confederate Navy commerce raiders built in British shipyards ...
). Henry's writings for the ''Times'' argued that Americans should be patient with the British. While in Britain, Adams was befriended by many noted men, including
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...
,
Francis T. Palgrave
Francis Turner Palgrave (; 28 September 1824 – 24 October 1897) was a British critic, anthologist and poet.
Life
He was born at Great Yarmouth, the eldest son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the (born Jewish) historian to his wife Elizabeth, daugh ...
,
Richard Monckton Milnes
Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, FRS (19 June 1809 – 11 August 1885) was an English poet, patron of literature and a politician who strongly supported social justice.
Background and education
Milnes was born in London, the son of ...
,
James Milnes Gaskell
James Milnes Gaskell (19 October 1810 – 5 February 1873) was a British Conservative politician.
James Milnes-Gaskell was the only child of Benjamin Gaskell (1781–1856) of Thornes House, Wakefield, West Yorkshire and Clifton Hall, Lancashire. ...
, and
Charles Milnes Gaskell
Charles George Milnes Gaskell PC (23 January 1842 – 9 January 1919) was an English lawyer and Liberal Party politician.
Milnes Gaskell was born in London, the son of James Milnes Gaskell M.P., of Thornes House, Wakefield, Yorkshire, and Wenloc ...
. He worked to introduce the young Henry James to English society, with the help of his closest and lifelong friend Charles Milnes Gaskell and his wife Lady Catherine (''nee'' Wallop).
While in Britain, Henry read and was taken with the works of
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
. For Adams, Mill's ''
Considerations on Representative Government
''Considerations on Representative Government'' is a book by John Stuart Mill published in 1861.
Summary
Mill argues for representative government, the ideal form of government in his opinion. One of the more notable ideas Mill puts forth in t ...
'' showed the necessity of an enlightened, moral, and intelligent elite to provide leadership to a government elected by the masses and subject to demagoguery, ignorance, and corruption. Henry wrote to his brother Charles that Mill demonstrated to him that "democracy is still capable of rewarding a conscientious servant."
[Henry Adams quoted in Contosta, David R. (1980). ''Henry Adams and the American Experiment''. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p. 33.] His years in London led Adams to conclude that he could best provide that knowledgeable and conscientious leadership by working as a correspondent and journalist.
Return to America
In 1868, Adams returned to the United States and settled in Washington, DC, where he began working as a
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
. Adams saw himself as a traditionalist longing for the democratic ideal of the 17th and 18th centuries. Accordingly, he was keen on exposing
political corruption
Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain.
Forms of corruption vary, but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, in ...
in his journalism.
Harvard professor
In 1870, Adams was appointed
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
of medieval history at Harvard, a position he held until his early retirement in 1877 at 39.
As an academic
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
, Adams is considered to have been the first (in 1874–1876) to conduct historical
seminar
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
work in the United States. Among his students was
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...
, who worked closely with Adams as a graduate student.
Adams was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1875.
Author
Adams's ''
The History of the United States of America (1801 to 1817)'' (9 vols., 1889–1891) is a highly detailed history of the Jefferson and Madison administrations with a focus on diplomacy.
Wide praise was given for its literary merit, especially the opening five chapters of volume 1, describing the nation in 1800. These chapters have also been criticized; Noble Cunningham states flatly, "Adams misjudged the state of the nation in 1800." In striving for literary effect, Cunningham argues, Adams ignored the dynamism and sophistication of the new nation.
[Cunningham, Noble E. (1988). ''The United States in 1800: Henry Adams Revisited''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, p. 63.] Such arguments aside, historians have long recognized it as a major and permanent monument of American historiography. It has been called "a neglected masterpiece" by
Garry Wills
Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Genera ...
, and "a history yet to be replaced" by the great historian
C. Vann Woodward.
In the 1880s, Adams wrote two novels, starting with ''
Democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
'', which was published anonymously in 1880 and immediately became popular in literary circles in England and Europe as well as in America. (Only after Adams's death did his publisher reveal his authorship.) His other novel, published under the ''nom de plume'' of Frances Snow Compton, was ''
Esther
Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...
'', whose heroine was believed to be modeled after his wife.
During the late 1860s and early 1870s, Adams edited, with the assistance of his brother Charles Francis Adams, the major American intellectual-literary journal, The
North American Review
The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived a ...
. During his tenure it published a number of articles exposing corrupt malpractices in finance, corporations and government, anticipating the work of the "muckrakers" by a generation. The brothers collected several of their most important essays in ''Chapters Of Erie'' (1871). This experience marked the public commencement of Henry Adams' critical observation of, and radical disenchantment with, the operations and ascendancy of corporations and centralized finance in the economic, social and political life of America. Summarizing the observations of a lifetime, he wrote to his brother Brooks on September 20, 1910 (vol. 6, pp. 369-370, ''Letters'', ed. Levenson et al.): "Our system of protection
f industry and commerce.. is fatal to our principles.... Railways, trusts, banking-system, manufactures, capital and labor, all rest on the principle of monopoly ... The suggestion that these great corporate organisms, which now perform all the vital functions of our social life, should behave themselves decently, gives away our contention that they have no right to exist. Nor am I prepared to admit that more decency can be attained through a legislature made up of similar people exercising similar illegal powers.... From top to bottom the whole system is a fraud.... The conviction of having reached this point where we have no choice but to go on in our own rot, drove me out of all share in public affairs twenty years ago.. Every one who has assumed such a share since then has only muddled and made the matter worse."
In 1884, Adams was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...
. In 1892, he received the degree
LL.D.
Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...
, from
Western Reserve University
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
.
In 1894, Adams was elected president of the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
. His address, entitled "The Tendency of History," was delivered ''in absentia''. The essay predicted the development of a scientific approach to history, but was somewhat ambiguous as to what this achievement might mean.
During the 1890s, Adams exercised a profound and fruitful influence over the thought and writings of his younger brother Brooks. Brooks' essay, "The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma," an offshoot of their decades long conversations and correspondence, was published years later.
Adams was an accomplished poet and in later life a friend of young poets—notably
George Cabot Lodge
George Cabot "Bay" Lodge (October 10, 1873 – August 21, 1909) was an American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Early life
Lodge was born in Boston on October 10, 1873, and grew up at his parents' home in Nahant, Massachusett ...
and
Trumbull Stickney
Joseph Trumbull Stickney (June 20, 1874 – October 11, 1904) was an American classical scholar and poet.
Biography
He was born in Geneva and spent much of his early life in Europe. He attended Harvard University from 1891, when he became editor ...
—but published nothing in his lifetime. His important poems "Buddha and Brahma" and "Prayers to the Virgin and the Dynamo" are included (respectively) in the Library of America's Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Anthologies, and a half dozen sonnets, a Troubadour translation, and one lyric are scattered through the letters. It is an open question whether the Massachusetts Historical Society or other archives preserve more.
In 1904, Adams privately published a copy of his "
Mont Saint Michel and Chartres
''Mont Saint Michel and Chartres'' is a book written by the American historian and scholar Henry Adams (1838–1918). Adams wrote it well after his historical masterpiece, '' The History of the United States of America (1801–1817)''. Whereas the ...
", a pastiche of history, travel, and poetry that celebrated the unity of medieval society, especially as represented in the great cathedrals of France. Originally meant as a diversion for his nieces and "nieces-in-wish", it was publicly released in 1913 at the request of
Ralph Adams Cram, an important American architect, and published with support of the
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
.
He published ''
The Education of Henry Adams
''The Education of Henry Adams'' is an autobiography that records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams (1838–1918), in his later years, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sh ...
'' in 1907, in a small private edition for selected friends. Only following Adams's death was ''The Education'' made available to the general public, in an edition issued by the
Massachusetts Historical Society
The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street in Bost ...
. It ranked first on the
Modern Library
The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...
's 1998
list of 100 Best Nonfiction Books and was named the best book of the 20th century by the
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes conservative thought on college campuses.
It was founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov with William F. Buckley Jr. as its first president. It sponsors ...
, a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
organization that promotes
classical education Classical education may refer to:
*''Modern'', educational practices and educational movements:
**An education in the Classics, especially in Ancient Greek and Latin
**Classical education movement, based on the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) an ...
. It was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
in 1919.
Some center-right intellectuals view the book critically. Conservative journalist
Fred Siegel
Fred Siegel ( ; born 1945) is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank which focuses on urban policy and politics.. He also serves as a professor of history and the humanities at Cooper Union and i ...
considered the worldview expressed therein to be rooted in resentment of America's middle class. "Henry Adams," wrote Siegel, "grounded the intellectual's alienation from American life in the resentment that superior men feel when they are insufficiently appreciated in America's common-man culture." Others view Adams's critique of the commercialism, corruption and pecuniolatry of American mercantile culture as central.
Personal life
Relations
Siblings
John Quincy Adams II
John Quincy Adams II (September 22, 1833 – August 14, 1894) was an American politician who represented Quincy in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1866 to 1867, 1868 to 1869, 1871 to 1872, and from 1874 to 1875.
Adams served as ...
(1833–1894) was a graduate of Harvard (1853), practiced law, and was a Democratic member for several terms of the Massachusetts general court. In 1872, he was nominated for vice president by the Democratic faction that refused to support the nomination of
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...
.
Charles Francis Adams Jr.
Charles Francis Adams Jr. (May 27, 1835 – March 20, 1915) was an American author, historian, and railroad and park commissioner who served as the president of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890. He served as a colonel in the Union Arm ...
(1835–1915) fought with the Union in the Civil War, receiving in 1865 the
brevet
Brevet may refer to:
Military
* Brevet (military), higher rank that rewards merit or gallantry, but without higher pay
* Brevet d'état-major, a military distinction in France and Belgium awarded to officers passing military staff college
* Aircre ...
of brigadier general in the regular army. He became an authority on railway management as the author of ''Railroads, Their Origin and Problems'' (1878), and as president of the
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
from 1884 to 1890. He collaborated with Henry on the editing of The North Atlantic Review and other projects.
Brooks Adams
Peter Chardon Brooks Adams (June 24, 1848 – February 13, 1927) was an American attorney, historian, political scientist and a critic of capitalism.
Early life and education
Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on June 24, 1848, son of ...
(1848–1927) practiced law and became a writer. His books include ''The Gold Standard'' (1894), ''The Law of Civilization and Decay'' (1895), ''America's Economic Supremacy'' (1900), ''The New Empire'' (1902), ''The Theory of Social Revolutions'' (1914), and ''The Emancipation of Massachusetts'' (1919). Henry's influence on and involvement with his youngest brother's thought and writing was profound and enduring.
Louisa Catherine Adams Kuhn Her brother describes her death in 1870 from tetanus following a carriage accident in
Bagni di Lucca
Bagni di Lucca (formerly Bagno a Corsena) is a comune of Tuscany, Italy, in the Province of Lucca with a population of about 6,100. The comune has 27 named frazioni (wards).
History
Bagni di Lucca has been known for its thermal springs since th ...
in his Chaos Chapter of ''The Education of Henry Adams''. She is buried in Florence's 'English' Cemetery.
Social life and friendships
Adams was a member of an exclusive circle, a group of friends called the "Five of Hearts" that consisted of Henry, his wife Clover, geologist and mountaineer
Clarence King
Clarence Rivers King (January 6, 1842 – December 24, 1901) was an American geologist, mountaineer and author. He was the first director of the United States Geological Survey from 1879 to 1881. Nominated by Republican President Rutherford B. Hay ...
,
John Hay
John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was Un ...
(assistant to Lincoln and later Secretary of State), and Hay's wife Clara.
One of Adams's frequent travel companions was the artist
John La Farge
John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics.
La Farge is best known for ...
, with whom he journeyed to Japan and the South Seas.
From 1885 until 1888,
Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight (1846–1917), the
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
's chief librarian, lived with Adams at his home at 1603 H Street in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, where he served as Adams's literary assistant, personal secretary, and household manager. Dwight would go on to serve as archivist of the Adams family archives in Quincy, Massachusetts; director of the
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...
; and U.S. Consul at
Vevey
Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used.
It was the seat of the district of ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
Marriage to Marian "Clover" Hooper
On June 27, 1872, Adams married
Clover Hooper in Beverly, Massachusetts. They spent their honeymoon in Europe, much of it with
Charles Milnes Gaskell
Charles George Milnes Gaskell PC (23 January 1842 – 9 January 1919) was an English lawyer and Liberal Party politician.
Milnes Gaskell was born in London, the son of James Milnes Gaskell M.P., of Thornes House, Wakefield, Yorkshire, and Wenloc ...
at
Wenlock Abbey
Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century monastery, located in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, at . Roger de Montgomery re-founded the Priory as a Cluniac house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century mon ...
,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
. While there, exemplifying the New England civic conscience she and Henry shared, Clover wrote "England is charming for a few families but hopeless for most ... Thank the Lord that the American eagle flaps and screams over us." Upon their return, Adams went back to his position at Harvard, and their home at 91 Marlborough Street, Boston, became a gathering place for a lively circle of
intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
s.
In 1877, his wife and he moved to Washington, DC, where their home on
Lafayette Square, across from the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
, again became a dazzling and witty center of social life. He worked as a journalist and continued working as a historian.
Her suicide
On Sunday morning, December 6, 1885, after a late breakfast at their home, 1607 H Street on Lafayette Square, Clover Hooper Adams went to her room. Henry, troubled by a toothache, had planned to see his dentist. While departing his home, he was met by a woman calling to see his wife. Adams went upstairs to her room to ask if she would receive the visitor and found his wife lying on a rug before the fire; an opened vial of potassium cyanide, which Clover had frequently used in processing photographs, lay nearby. Adams carried his wife to a sofa, then ran for a doctor. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Charles E. Hagner pronounced Clover dead.
Much speculation and numerous theories have been given concerning the causes of Clover Adams's suicide. Her death has been attributed to depression over her father's death, as well as a family history of mental depression and suicide . Posthumous speculation has been made more difficult by Henry Adams's destruction of most of Clover's letters and photos following her death. His autobiography maintains a profound silence about his wife after her suicide. Adams's grief was profound and enduring. The event was life-shattering for Adams and profoundly altered the course of his life.
Henry, his brother, Charles Francis Adams, Clover's brother Edward, and her sister Ellen, with her husband Ephraim Gurney, were the attendees at a brief funeral service held on December 9, 1885, at the house on Lafayette Square. Interment services followed at Rock Creek Cemetery, but the actual burial was postponed until December 11, 1885, because of the inclement weather. A few weeks later, Adams ordered a modest headstone as a temporary marker. Later he commissioned a monument for her tomb from his friend, the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who created a masterpiece for her memorial.
Relationship with Elizabeth Sherman Cameron
![Portrait of Elizabeth Sherman Cameron by Anders Zorn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Portrait_of_Elizabeth_Sherman_Cameron_by_Anders_Zorn.jpeg)
Henry Adams first met Elizabeth Cameron in January 1881 at a reception in the drawing room of the house of John and Clara Hay. Elizabeth was considered to be one of the most beautiful and intelligent women in the Washington area. Elizabeth had grown up as Lizzie Sherman, the daughter of Judge Charles Sherman of Ohio, the niece of Secretary of the Treasury
John Sherman
John Sherman (May 10, 1823October 22, 1900) was an American politician from Ohio throughout the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also served as ...
in Hayes's cabinet, and the niece of General
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...
. Her family had pressured Lizzie into a loveless marriage with Senator
J. Donald Cameron
James Donald Cameron (May 14, 1833 – August 30, 1918) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and in the United States Senate for nearly twenty years. In May, 1876 Cameron was ...
, brokering a prenuptial agreement that provided her with the income from $160,000 worth of securities, a very large amount in 1878, equivalent to about $ million in . The arranged marriage on May 9, 1878, united the reluctant 20-year-old beauty with a 44-year-old widower with six children. Eliza, his eldest, who had served as her father's hostess, was now displaced by a stepmother the same age. The children never accepted her. The marriage was further strained by the Senator's coarseness and indifference and his fondness for bourbon and the world of political corruption he inhabited, which is reflected in Adams's novel ''Democracy''.
Henry Adams initiated a correspondence with Lizzie on May 19, 1883, when she and her husband departed for Europe. That letter reflected his unhappiness with her departure and his longing for her return. It was the first of hundreds to follow for the next 35 years, recording a passionate yet unconsummated relationship. On December 7, 1884, one year before Clover's suicide, Henry Adams wrote to Lizzie, "I shall dedicate my next poem to you. I shall have you carved over the arch of my stone doorway. I shall publish your volume of extracts with your portrait on the title page. None of these methods can fully express the extent to which I am yours."
Adams's wife, Clover, who had written a weekly letter to her father throughout her marriage except for the brief hiatus during her breakdown along the Nile, never mentioned concerns or suspicions about Henry's relationship with Lizzie. Nothing in the letters of her family or circle of friends indicates her distrust or unhappiness with her husband in this matter. Indeed, after her death, Henry found a letter from Clover to her sister Ellen which had not been posted. The survival of this letter was assured by its contents which read, "If I had one single point of character or goodness, I would stand on that and grow back to life. Henry is more patient and loving than words can express—God might envy him—he bears and hopes and despairs hour after hour—Henry is beyond all words tenderer and better than all of you even."
On Christmas Day 1885, Adams sent one of Clover's favorite pieces of jewelry to Cameron, requesting that she "sometimes wear it, to remind you of her."
Later life and travels
Just before the end of 1885, Adams moved into his newly completed mansion next door at 1603 H Street designed by his old friend,
Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...
, one of the most prominent architects of his day.
[Samuels, Ernest, "Henry Adams. 3 volumes" Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947–64, p. 237.]
Following his wife's death, Adams took up a restless life as a globetrotter, traveling extensively, spending summers in Paris and winters in Washington, where he commissioned the
Adams Memorial
The Adams Memorial is a proposed United States presidential memorial to honor the second President John Adams; his wife and prolific writer Abigail Adams; their son, the sixth President John Quincy Adams; John Quincy Adams' wife Louisa Catherine ...
, designed by sculptor
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he trave ...
and architect
Stanford White
Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect. He was also a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms. He designed many houses for the rich, in additio ...
for her grave site in Rock Creek Cemetery.
Death and burial
In 1912, Adams suffered a stroke, perhaps brought on by news of the sinking of the , for which he had return tickets to Europe. After the stroke, his scholarly output diminished, but he continued to travel, write letters, and host dignitaries and friends at his Washington, DC, home.
In the first volume of her autobiography
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
offers this vignette of Adams in old age:
"Occasionally we received one of the much-coveted invitations to lunch or dine at his house... My first picture of this supposedly stern, rather biting Mr. Adams is of an old gentleman in a victoria outside of our house on N Street. is secretaryAileen Tone and I were having tea inside, but Mr. Adams never paid calls. He did, however, request that the children of the house come out and join him in the victoria; ... and they brought their Scottie dog and sat and chatted and played all over the vehicle. No one was ever able thereafter to persuade me that Mr. Adams was quite the cynic he was supposed to be. One day after lunch with him, my husband he future Presidentmentioned something which at the time was causing him deep concern in the Government, and Mr. Adams looked at him rather fiercely and said: 'Young man, I have lived in this house many years and seen the occupants of that White House across the square come and go, and nothing that you minor officials or the occupant of that house can do will affect the history of the world for long!' ... Henry Adams loved to shock his hearers, and I think he knew that those who were worth their salt would understand him and pick out of the knowledge which flowed from his lips the things which might be useful, and discard the cynicism as an old man's defense against his own urge to be till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
an active factor in the work of the world."
Henry Adams died at age 80 in Washington, DC. on March 27, 1918. He is interred beside his wife in
Rock Creek Cemetery
Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. It is across the stree ...
, Washington, DC.
Views
Anglo-Saxonism
Considered a prominent
Anglo-Saxonist of particularly the nineteenth-century, Adams has been portrayed by modern historians as anxious about the immigration of the era into the United States, particularly from Eastern Europe. More starkly put, Adams also wrote of his belief that "the dark races are gaining on us". He considered the U.S. Constitution itself as belonging to the Anglo-Saxon "race", and as an expression of "Germanic freedom". He went so far as to criticize fellow scholars for not being absolute enough in their Anglo-Saxonism, such as
William Stubbs
William Stubbs (21 June 182522 April 1901) was an English historian and Anglican bishop. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1866 and 1884. He was Bishop of Chester from 1884 to 1889 and Bishop of O ...
, whom he criticized for downplaying the significance, as he saw it, of "Germanic law" or
hundred law in its contribution to English
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
.
Adams was nevertheless highly critical of the English. He referred to them as a "besotted race" from whom nothing good could come and "wanted nothing so much as to wipe England off the earth."
Antisemitism
Adams's attitude towards
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
has been described as one of loathing.
John Hay
John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was Un ...
said that when Adams "saw
Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9 ...
reddening ...
esearched for a Jew stoking the fire."
Adams wrote: "I detest
he Jews
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
and everything connected with them, and I live only and solely with the hope of seeing their demise, with all their accursed Judaism. I want to see all the lenders at interest taken out and executed." To one friend, he wrote: "Bombard New York. I know no place that would be more improved by it. The chief population is Jew, and the rest is German Jew."
His letters were "peppered with a variety of antisemitic remarks", according to historian Robert Michael, as in the following citations from historian Edward Saveth:
"We are in the hands of the Jews", Adams lamented. "They can do what they please with our values." He advised against investment except in the form of gold locked in a safe deposit box. "There you have no risk but the burglar. In any other form you have the burglar, the Jew, the Czar, the socialist, and, above all, the total irremediable, radical rottenness of our whole social, industrial, financial and political system."
Edward Chalfant's definitive three-volume biography of Adams includes an exhaustive, well-documented examination of Adams's "antisemitism" in its second volume, ''Improvement of the World''. He shows that most of the time when Adams says "Jews" he means "financiers." This accords with the historical English usage referenced by the second definition under the
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
entry, a usage that was common in Adams's time and social milieu. It also accords with Adams's frequent laments that "the eighteenth-century fabric of a priori, or moral, principles" had been replaced with "a bankers' world" and that the "banking mind was obnoxious".
Adams esteemed individual Jewish personages. In the "Dilettantism" chapter of ''
The Education of Henry Adams
''The Education of Henry Adams'' is an autobiography that records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams (1838–1918), in his later years, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sh ...
'' he wrote of historian
Francis Palgrave
Sir Francis Palgrave, (; born Francis Ephraim Cohen, July 1788 – 6 July 1861) was an English archivist and historian. He was Deputy Keeper (chief executive) of the Public Record Office from its foundation in 1838 until his death; and he is ...
that "the reason of his superiority lay in his name, which was Cohen, and his mind which was Cohen also". (Palgrave, the son of a Jewish stockbroker, had changed his name from Cohen upon marriage.) In the "Political Morality" chapter of the same volume he praises the Jewish statesman
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...
over the Gentiles
Palmerston Palmerston may refer to:
People
* Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer
* Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston
** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman an ...
, Russell and Gladstone, writing: "Complex these gentlemen were not. Disraeli alone might, by contrast, be called complex."
Historical entropy
In 1910, Adams printed and distributed to university libraries and history professors the small volume ''A Letter to American Teachers of History'' proposing a "theory of history" based on the
second law of thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal experience concerning heat and Energy transformation, energy interconversions. One simple statement of the law is that heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects ( ...
and the principle of
entropy
Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynam ...
. This, essentially, states that all energy dissipates, order becomes disorder, and the earth will eventually become uninhabitable. In short, he applied the physics of dynamical systems of
Rudolf Clausius
Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (; 2 January 1822 – 24 August 1888) was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle ...
,
Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Association, ...
, and
William Thomson to the modeling of human history.
In his 1909 manuscript ''The Rule of Phase Applied to History'', Adams attempted to use
Maxwell's demon
Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment that would hypothetically violate the second law of thermodynamics. It was proposed by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. In his first letter Maxwell called the demon a "finite being", while the ' ...
as a historical
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
, though he seems to have misunderstood and misapplied the principle. Adams interpreted history as a process moving towards "equilibrium", but he saw
militaristic
Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...
nations (he felt Germany pre-eminent in this class) as tending to reverse this process, a "Maxwell's Demon of history."
Adams made many attempts to respond to the criticism of his formulation from his scientific colleagues, but the work remained incomplete at Adams's death in 1918. It was published posthumously.
Robert E. Lee
Adams said, "I think that
Lee should have been hanged. It was all the worse that he was a good man and a fine character and acted conscientiously. It's always the good men who do the most harm in the world."
The Virgin Mary
In ''Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres'', Adams argues that the previous nineteen hundred years of civilization dating from the birth of Christ had been dominated by the feminine, fertile image of the Blessed Virgin, and that the industrial "dynamo" was a masculine, destructive force which would upend history.
Writings by Adams
* 1876. ''Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law'' (with
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...
, Ernest Young and
J.L. Laughlin).
* 1879. ''Life of Albert Gallatin''.
* 1879. ''The Writings of Albert Gallatin'' (as editor, three volumes).
* 1880. ''
Democracy: An American Novel''.
* 1882. ''John Randolph''.
* 1884. ''
Esther: A Novel'' (facsimile ed., 1938, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ).
* 1889–1891. ''History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison'' (9 volumes).
* 1891. ''Historical Essays''.
* 1893. ''Tahiti: Memoirs of Arii Taimai e Marama of Eimee ... Last Queen of Tahiti'' (facsimile of the 1901 Paris ed., 1947 Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ).
* 1904. ''
Mont Saint Michel and Chartres
''Mont Saint Michel and Chartres'' is a book written by the American historian and scholar Henry Adams (1838–1918). Adams wrote it well after his historical masterpiece, '' The History of the United States of America (1801–1817)''. Whereas the ...
''.
* 1911. ''The Life of George Cabot Lodge'' (facsimile ed. 1978, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ).
* 1918. ''
The Education of Henry Adams
''The Education of Henry Adams'' is an autobiography that records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams (1838–1918), in his later years, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sh ...
''.
* 1919. ''The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma''.
* 1930–1938. ''Letters'' (Edited by W.C. Ford, two volumes).
* 1982. ''The Letters of Henry Adams, Volumes 1–3: 1858–1892'' (Edited by J.C. Levenson, Ernest Samuels and Charles Vandersee).
* 1988. ''The Letters of Henry Adams, Volumes 4–6: 1892–1918'' (Edited by J.C. Levenson, Ernest Samuels and Charles Vandersee).
Reprinted
*''Democracy: An American Novel, Esther, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, The Education of Henry Adams'' (Ernest Samuels, ed.) (
Library of America
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...
, 1983)
*''History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison'' (Earl N. Harbert, ed.) (
Library of America
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...
, 1986) Vol I (Jefferson) . Vol II (Madison) .
See also
*
Maxwell's demon
Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment that would hypothetically violate the second law of thermodynamics. It was proposed by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. In his first letter Maxwell called the demon a "finite being", while the ' ...
*''
The Education of Henry Adams
''The Education of Henry Adams'' is an autobiography that records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams (1838–1918), in his later years, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sh ...
''
References
Further reading
*
Adams, James Truslow (1933)
''Henry Adams'' New York: Albert & Charles Boni, Inc.
* Adams, Marian Hooper (1936). ''The Letters of Mrs. Henry Adams, 1865–1883''. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. (Edited by W. Thoron).
* Baym, Max Isaac (1951). ''The French Education of Henry Adams''. Columbia University Press.
*Boyd, Kelly, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writers'' (Rutledge, 1999) 1:2–4
*
Brookhiser, Richard (2002). ''America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735–1918''. New York: Free Press.
* Brown, David S. (2020). ''The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams''. Scribner.
* Cater, H.D., ed., (1947). ''Henry Adams and His Friends: A Collection of His Unpublished Letters''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
* Chalfant, Edward (1982). ''Both Sides of the Ocean: A biography of Henry Adams, His First Life, 1838–1862.'' Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books
* Chalfant, Edward (1994). ''Better in Darkness: A Biography of Henry Adams, His Second Life, 1862–1891.'' Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books
* Chalfant, Edward (2001). ''Improvement of the World: A Biography of Henry Adams, His Third Life, 1891–1918.'' Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books .
* Decker, William Merrill (1990). ''The Literary Vocation of Henry Adams''. University of North Carolina Press.
* Donovan, Timothy Paul (1961). ''Henry Adams and Brooks Adams: The Education of Two American Historians''. University of Oklahoma Press.
* Dusinberre, William (1980). ''Henry Adams: The Myth of Failure''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
* Egerton, Douglas R. (2019). ''Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America''. New York: Basic Books.
* Harbert, Earl N. (1977). ''The Force So Much Closer Home: Henry Adams and the Adams Family''. New York University Press.
* Harbert, Earl N., ed. (1981). ''Critical Essays on Henry Adams''. Boston: G.K. Hall. Contributors include
Henry Steele Commager
Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States.
In the 19 ...
, Ernest Samuels, Howard M. Munford, and Margaret J. Brown.
* Hochfield, George (1962). ''Henry Adams: An Introduction and Interpretation''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
* Hume, Robert A. (1951). ''Runaway Star: An Appreciation of Henry Adams''. Cornell University Press.
* Jacobson, Joanne (1992). ''Authority and Alliance in the Letters of Henry Adams''. University of Wisconsin Press.
*
Jordy, William H. (1952). ''Henry Adams: Scientific Historian''. New Haven: Yale University Press
OCLC 427157* Kaplan, Harold (1981). ''Power and Order: Henry Adams and the Naturalist Tradition in American Fiction''. University of Chicago Press.
* Le Clair, Robert Charles (1978). ''Three American Travellers in England: James Russell Lowell, Henry Adams, Henry James''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
* Levenson, J.C. (1957). ''The Mind and Art of Henry Adams''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
* Lyon, Melvin (1970). ''Symbol and Idea in Henry Adams''. University of Nebraska Press.
*
O'Toole, Patricia (1990). ''The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, 1880–1918''. New York: Clarkson. N. Potter.
* Rowe, John Carlos, ed., (1996). ''New Essays on the Education of Henry Adams''. Cambridge University Press.
*
Samuels, Ernest (1948). ''The Young Henry Adams''. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
* Samuels, Ernest (1958). ''Henry Adams: The Middle Years''. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
* Samuels, Ernest (1964). ''Henry Adams: The Major Phase''. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
* Samuels, Ernest (1989). ''Henry Adams''. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (Abridgement of the three above volumes.)
* Sayre, Robert F. (1964). ''Examined Self: Benjamin Franklin, Henry Adams, Henry James''. Princeton University Press.
* Scheyer, Ernst (1970). ''The Circle of Henry Adams: Art & Artists''. Wayne State University Press.
*
Simpson, Brooks D. (1996). ''The Political Education of Henry Adams''. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
* Stegmaier, Mark J. (2012). ''Henry Adams in the Secession Crisis''. Louisiana State University Press.
* Wagner, Vern (1969). ''The Suspension of Henry Adams: A Study of Manner and Matter''. Wayne State University Press.
* Wasserstrom, William (1984). ''The Ironies of Progress: Henry Adams and the American Dream''. Southern Illinois University Press.
*
Wills, Garry (2005). ''Henry Adams and the Making of America''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
* Young, James P. (2001). ''Henry Adams: The Historian as Political Theorist''. University Press of Kansas.
*
Zencey, Eric (1995). ''Panama''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
External links
*
*
*
*
Works by Henry Adams at
Hathi Trust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
Works by Henry Adams at The University of Virginia American Studies Hypertext Project
The Letters of Henry Adams
*
''The Broken Arch'', an unpublished work by Lorrie Tussman exploring the theme of unity in Western civilization based on the writings of Henry Adams"Writings of Henry Adams"from
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
's ''
American Writers: A Journey Through History''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Henry
1838 births
1918 deaths
19th-century American historians
19th-century American male writers
19th-century American novelists
Adams political family
American expatriates in France
American male novelists
Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Harvard University faculty
Harvard University alumni
Historians of the United States
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Members of the American Antiquarian Society
Novelists from Massachusetts
Presidents of the American Historical Association
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners
Writers from Boston
American male biographers
American male non-fiction writers