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The Education of Henry Adams Paperback – July 20, 2014

by Henry Adams (Author)

79 customer reviews

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No American historian of the nineteenth century has so enchanted, irritated, and impressed his contemporaries and successors as Henry Brooks Adams. He was and is his country's greatest historian, and its most elusive. His achievement was various: he helped to fashion and define the school of "scientific" history, so that his History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (1884-1891) is a work of stamina and grace that may, with some indulgence, be mentioned in the same breath with Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The Education of Henry Adams

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Product Details

Paperback: 370 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 20, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500587303
ISBN-13: 978-1500587307
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12916 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs

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Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

5 star		42%
4 star		25%
3 star		14%
2 star		11%
1 star		8%

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Top Customer Reviews

"Looking blankly into the void of death"

By D. Cloyce Smith on September 20, 2004

Format: Paperback

Nearing the age of seventy, when "the mind wakes to find itself looking blankly into the void of death," Adams wrote for his closest friends his version of the earth-shattering events they had experienced. He had 100 copies printed in luxurious editions and, in early 1907, sent them to such dignitaries as Theodore Roosevelt, William and Henry James, Charles Gaskell, and Henry Cabot Lodge. This private account was not released commercially until after Adams's death, in 1918, when it became a best-seller and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Many scholars and critics, as well as Adams himself, view "The Education of Henry Adams" as a sequel to his earlier book, "Mont Sant Michel and Chartres" (also privately printed). Indeed, the posthumous edition of the later work opens with an Editor's Preface (signed by Lodge, but presumptuously written by Adams himself) in which the author proposes subtitles for each volume: respectively, "A Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity" and "A Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity." While the two works are certainly linked thematically, they are not companion works in the traditional sense: "Mont Sant Michel" is a personal examination of medieval institutional and cultural history, while the "Education" is Adams's reckoning of his own involvement in international diplomatic affairs and intellectual circles. In other words, one can safely and profitably read one book without reading the other.

So what is this difficult-to-categorize book about? Reduced to its simplest level, it recounts how an "eighteenth-century American boy" grew up during the nineteenth century, only to be intimidated and awed by the chaos of the twentieth.Read more ›

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Stupid Teachers.....show some respect to Mr. Adams

By A Customer on September 5, 2000

Format: Paperback

I can only laugh, to hear the reports of students being required to read Adams. If there is one thing I am certain, it is that Adams would not appreciate being assigned. "The Education" is intended for those real students whose *desire* is learning. I put special emphasis on *desire*, not for the sake of being pompous, but to distinguish this type of desire as being self-motivated. Adams "Education" is a tremendous rebuttal to the ordinary, institutionalized education. There is little doubt as to the socio-economic benefits and sensibilities of formal education, but one should also recognize its inherent limitations. People seldom enjoy what they are forced to do! Adams' "Education" is not to be read as a classic, or because well-read people discuss it over coffee...rather, read it because you're curious. If you've forgotten that school and education are distinct, let Mr. Adams show you the difference. And well meaning teachers of the world.....Phuhleease, don't require Mr. Adams, as you will ruin the experience. --One last note; I think the other reviewers miss the boat when they call Adams cynical and depressing. This is not cynicism, but wit-big difference. For cynicism see Sinclair Lewis' Babbit(which you shouldnt assign either I might add). As far as depressing, I just don't get that at all. It was patently obvious to this reader that Mr. Adams' high-mindedness and detachment were toungue and cheek. In writing his "Education" Mr. Adams, no doubt, enjoyed himself...and while reading it, so will you.

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Adam's cynical view of U.S. history is amusing and brilliant

By A Customer on September 9, 1999

Format: Hardcover

Dear Stefi, Now that there is a slight lull in the happy Chestertown merry-go-round, I want to write a paragraph or two explaining why <The Education of Henry Adams> is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. This is why it is so interesting: It was written about 1906 and covers U.S. intellectual and political history from about 1860 to 1906. What is clever about it is the cynical, humorous sophistication (very unAmerican) with which he, an insider, regards all of these events. The book, like Montaigne or Rousseau's <Confessions> is an autobiography and, like Montaigne, Adams is of the view that life should above all be amusing, so that any great enterprise should be undertaken only if it is indeed amusing. The driving idea of the book, however, is where to find the truth (you guessed it--he is still searching on the last page). The places where he searches are very intriguing. He begins at Harvard, where, says he, he learned nothing from books and only one thing from the classes: how to get up and talk in front of large crowds of people about nothing. He was required to do this routinely, and his speeches were, like everyone else's, greeted with hissing and criticisms, so he learned not to expect approbation from an audience. Adams got heavily into the debate about evolution (Darwin being the hot topic at the end of the nineteenth century), because he thought it was the main amusement of his era. His position on evolution is "reversion" rather than progress. One of his proofs is a comparison of George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant. He admired Washington (a great general who became a great president); he voted for Grant (a great general). He knew personally the members of Grant's cabinet, thieves or incompetents at best.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Very interesting

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Very interesting

Published 2 months ago by José Maria Matias

Education of Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams is rich in personal observations and nineteenth-century history. Even his mile walk to school at age 6 has historical interest, because the 77-year-old... Read more

Published 4 months ago by RRC

Education of Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams is rich in personal observations and nineteenth-century history. Even his mile walk to school at age 6 has historical interest, because the 77-year-old... Read more

Published 4 months ago by RRC

Review

Not quite what I expected, but strangely engaging nonetheless. The effort of plowing through an incredibly complex musing on the algebraic dimension of education will eventually... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Kindle Customer

Five Stars

Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic

Published 8 months ago by Glenn Dwyer

You Tell Me What Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg

This American classic is a reader's delight and one almost does not know where to begin, but here are a few impressions. Read more

Published 8 months ago by propertius

Maybe Mr. Adams should have studied harder

Henry Adams, as do some reviewers, offers zealous condemnation of formal education. No doubt, formal education at the high school and college level is far from perfect, and... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Marc A Evans

Highly recommended

This is truly as great a book as earlier reviews indicate. Highly recommended to get a picture into a life of one of the nation's most intriguing intellectuals during the gilded... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Cliff H

Uninteresting

Rambling narrative

Published 16 months ago by John Kern

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