The Education of Henry Adams (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry Brooks Adams
- First Published: 1907
- Type of Work: Autobiography
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, History
- Subjects: United States or Americans, France or French people, Schools or school life, England or English people, Moral conditions, Grandparents or grandchildren, Money, Presidents, Wealth, Inventions or inventors
- Locales: Boston, MA, Paris, France, Washington, D.C., London, England, Berlin, Germany, Quincy, MA
Writing of himself in the third person to increase the sense of objectivity, Adams presents himself as one unable to cope with the multiplicity of the twentieth century. His education, rooted in eighteenth century rational humanism, had told him that the world is orderly. Yet his experiences had proved to him that chaos is the law of nature; order is the dream of man.
To establish this myth of failure, Adams distorts and deletes facts. He dismisses his monumental historical writings and his work for his father in the American embassy in London during the Civil War. He also skips...
[The entire page is 528 words long]
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