The Education of Henry Adams (Oxford World's Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Pompous, amusing, annoying, erudite . . .
Review: (It is certainly exciting that the internet provides a chance for book-lovers to discuss not just new books but classics. People write thoughtful reviews only for the glorious reason of expressing ideas; that certainly gives one hope for humanity. . .)

Sometimes H. Adams makes one laugh, other times one just wants to grab him by his starched collar and slap him across the face a few times. Stop whining about the failure of education! One doubts he even KNOWS what he has learned and what he has not!

The most frustrating aspect of this book is the fact that the experience which clearly would have caused him to learn the most, the suicide of his wife, is completely omitted. Clearly he did not believe he could discuss such a horrendous event without deviating from his measured, cynical detachment (which is not without its benefits), so he just skips over it! We only know that post 1890 is his "posthumous" period, where he is even more cold and sober than before.

Emotional content is sorely lacking in this book. If we are going to relate to someone born into such unique circumstances, we need to find what is human about him, joy and sorrow. Not just amusement and cynicism.

Another big problem with the book is the relentless of name-dropping of (now) obscure 19th century pols and esoteric references. It really slows it down for the reader.

All that being said, this is a very worthwhile book. Adams has much to teach us about America, if not ourselves. His generalizations are pat but often incisive, his writing is full of 19th century flavor, and he is the insider's insider to D.C. shenanigans. He is full of quips and insights that still hold true today (European perceptions of Amerericans, the state of British cuisine, etc.)

The book is challenging in a good way. Just try fully grasping some of labrynthian run-on sentences.

Rating:
Summary: Reflective biography of the 19th century
Review: As the grandson of America's sixth president, John Quincy Adams, and great grandson of America's second president, John Adams, Henry Adams was born to a distinguished New England heritage. His biography recounts the education he received, lamenting the inadequacy of formal schooling in preparing him to live ably during a century of revolutionary technological and philosophical change. Within his comments are wry insights that sometimes draw a smile from the reader, such as his definition of a schoolmaster: "A man employed to tell lies to little boys." Adams' views are rather cynical and somewhat fatalistic, but they do reflect the grand changes taking place during his lifetime. I read this book for a lit. class in college, and though most of my classmates found this book a little dull, I found it interesting enough to hold my attention.

Rating:
Summary: Adam's cynical view of U.S. history is amusing and brilliant
Review: 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. QED: things are getting worse not better. In his old age (sixty), after many other amusements of a busy lifetime, he decided to do what I did at the age of twenty-two: to visit all the important medieval French cathedrals. (In 1958, I bought a car in Saarbrucken--VW bug--and drove to seventeen of the greatest cathedrals, Guide Michelin in hand, staying at the youth hostels.) His book is peppered with well-digested quotations from French literature; he apparently knew it from top to bottom. His goal was to understand the Middle Ages (unity in the Virgin) and to write two books, one about the unity of the Middle Ages (title: <Chartres and Mont Saint Michel>) and another about the diversity of the twentieth century, <The Education of Henry Adams>. Adam's book has a number of difficult spots (confusing original philosophy and historical references that mean something only to the well-informed historian), but the good parts are worth going on to find. I hope this vignette will persuade you to get through the boring chapters at the beginning of the book on his childhood in Quincy. The narrative becomes interesting only with his stories about the Court of Saint James where he spent his early twenties as a diplomat during the U.S. Civil War. From that point on, I think you will love it as much as I did. Cheers! Claire

Rating:
Summary: Adam's cynical view of U.S. history is amusing and brilliant
Review: 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 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 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. QED: things are getting worse not better. In his old age (sixty), after many other amusements of a busy lifetime, he decided to do what I did at the age of twenty-two: to visit all the important medieval French cathedrals. (In 1958, I bought a car in Saarbrucken--VW bug--and drove to seventeen of the greatest cathedrals, Guide Michelin in hand, staying at the youth hostels.) His book is peppered with well-digested quotations from French literature; he apparently knew it from top to bottom. His goal was to understand the Middle Ages (unity in the Virgin) and to write two books, one about the unity of the Middle Ages (title: ) and another about the diversity of the twentieth century, . Adam's book has a number of difficult spots (confusing original philosophy and historical references that mean something only to the well-informed historian), but the good parts are worth going on to find. I hope this vignette will persuade you to get through the boring chapters at the beginning of the book on his childhood in Quincy. The narrative becomes interesting only with his stories about the Court of Saint James where he spent his early twenties as a diplomat during the U.S. Civil War. From that point on, I think you will love it as much as I did. Cheers! Claire

Rating:
Summary: The Challenge of Education
Review: Having read Amazon reviews that range from laudatory to scathing, I'm drawn to put in my 2 cents worth on this classic, in spite of the fact that the jury is already in, decisively. This book is difficult. I started it twice and put it down twice. Finally I jumped ahead to his account of service as private secretary to his father's embassy to Britain during the Civil War and was caught in the flow of eloquence. Hennry James expresses himself sharply, with grace and candor. It is true that some passages strike a hollow note, such as when he pities his plight in London, being banished to parties while his friends have the "honor" of achieving rank on battlefriends. And his attempts to bring the jargon of science (and electrical dynamos) to the discipline of history are a poignant (and tedious) commentary on the dominance of physics as the holder of mysteries in 1900. But for those who can be patient occasionally, and who have an interest in the period (Gore Vidal's novels make it more accessible), this is truly a fine, ennobling read, by a wise observer of humanity.

Rating:
Summary: a man haunted by expectation
Review: Henry Adams comes across as a thoughtful, intellgient but deeply concerned man. He is looking for menaning about existence but sees only chaos and confusion (as do we all). What sets him apart is his contuinued search for lifes answers. he treats us to his theroy of history as the battle of the dynamo and the virgin. All intresting reading and thought provking. Even after consedring all this it is the character of Henry Adams- his personality which is evident on every single page. He is not trying to hide his thoughts by inventing characters, more trying to impress on the reader what it was like coming to terms with an ever confusing world.

Rating:
Summary: Philosophical Inquiries at Scientific Change
Review: Henry Adams grew up having numerous opportunities available, yet a limited perspective inherited of politically viewing these perspectives from an unbiased, alternative point of view. However, he was far ahead of his time as he didn't allow the constraints of his traditional, plain vanilla, New England raised, Harvard educated upbrining get in his way of addressing what really matters to being happy, satisfied, contempt in 19th century American society.

This book is many things: as he himself referred to a search of meaningful truth through education that could be utilized in the long-term and is not brushed under the carpet after it's application for a particular task has been deemed unnecessary; a search for inner and outer spiritual balance and connectedness with the past, present, and unknowable future in an age of rapid change, discovery, and industrial transformation; and finally the importance of having gratitude and honoring born-out priveleges, while seeking to expand one's intellectual and social horizons and affiliations.

The analogy to the mechanistic dynamo and his educational interpretation of needing to brede scientifically minded, evolution espousing mathematical minds and his other whimsical social inferences have proved prophetic and were way ahead of his time. From his ruminations on the unique cultural differences toward the work-play ethic of Germany, France, Italy, and England , to his analysis of the ill-founded corrupt Grant and Reconstruction era Presidencies, to the evolution of the diplomatist's political importance and stature, and finally whether his life truly added something significant to himself and society, Adams is a philosophical genius listening and taking it all in as his world vastly changes and transforms itself on a locomotive train ride. In the end he found education through the traditional means of the textbook and teacher-pupil method successful if adapted toward science and technology, but inadequate as only experience and traveling brought on the proper perspective and long-term balanced outlook for an individual. These conclusive findings is the primary reason to read this philosophically inquisitive book, as many of the other's thought processes and findings bear strong truths to today's hustle-n-bustle lifestyle.

Rating:
Summary: the bridge between the distant past and near past
Review: Henry Adams managed to become a Modernist late in life. He was 62 years old at the turn of the century and a bit older when he wrote this memoir and yet his prose is crisp, direct and penetrating like that of Aldous Huxley rather like that of say Charles Dickens. I found myself re-reading passages of this books immediately after finishing them, purely to admire the beauty of expression. Adams is epigrammatic, conveying humor and wisdom with economy and an amazing sense of rhythm.

The content of this book is fascinating. His observations of 'New England character' early on are, to my mind, dead on, although it may be so that he actually invented this perspective on New Englanders. In either case it matches my post-Modern experience of the place and its people. Adams' insistence on treating all of life's events as either learning experiences or conscious wastes of time is an attitude that I suppose I've always had, but never 'brought to consciousness'. He is very tough on formal education, but one needs to be or it rapidly becomes a waste of time.

His application of the third person to his own self is very effective. He considers himself to have been essentially a pawn of history because of his pedigree. His use of this simple literary device detaches the character portrayed from the narrator and has the effect of leaving Adams adrift in the narrative of his own life. Other reviewers have actually complained that he does not deal with the suicide of his wife in this book. This is not true. He pointed stops the chronological narrative immediately before his marriage and picks it up several years later after she is dead. In a painful but enigmatic passage he describes daily visiting the statue that St. Gaudens designed for her grave and being angry that it has become a tourist attraction. There is much else expressed there, but I would have to re-read it to understand all of it, but I do know that the sadness is practically palpable on the page.

I can not say that I accept his 'law of history' related in the penultimate chapter of the book, but it has made me want to pick up his brother Brooks' book, The Law of Civilization and Decay, that has long sat on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Henry seems lost in a changing world
Review: Henry Adams presents himself as a soul caught somewhere between the 18th Century and the 20th, not belonging in either. If you ever wondered how America was transformed from 18th Century idealism to the current political cynicism, this book might add a clue. Be warned, you must first wade through the muck of Adams'18th Century New England pretentiousness. Expect a jaded view of events and figures of the time, especially concerning the Civil War. Still, it does serve to help answer the question, "What would historical figures like John Adams or Daniel Webster had thought about evolution of American politics."

Rating:
Summary: An Education
Review: Henry Adams starts off his autobiography with a description of how tough he's had it living up to the standard of his president great-grandfather, president grandfather, and ambassador to the UK father. Lest the reader who was not born so high-brow as this laugh at the self-absorption that would permit such an upbringing to be conceived of as deprived, Adams then admits that being born with a silver spoon in one's mouth to coincide with such a lineage makes his a minor difficulty compared to the world's real problems. It is this self-awareness and honesty that makes this as excellent a book as it is. Sure, Adams had to live up to a high standard but he also was in a situation where it was possible to do it, and where even failure would be in comfort. Adams' descriptions of his life's longing for education are remarkably honest throughout, and his ability to step outside of the 'holy writ' of entrenched teachings shows that his was a mind that constantly sought answers actually worth their merit. He waxes philosophical (as opposed to autobiographical) at the end, but it is here ("The Virgin and the Dynamo," for example) that he may be at his most profound. Even if you don't agree with his thoughts, he does stimulate consideration of ideas that you may not have previously broached. Lastly, Henry Adams is/was a profoundly arrogant man, although not entirely condescending. I find this refreshing; that he knew his abilities and was comfortable enough in them to not feel the need to fake humility.