Henry James

by James Truslow Adams

This book, first published in 1933, examines the life and achievements of Henry Adams, the American historian and political journalist. It looks at his youth and early development of his ideas, and goes on to look at his time as a diplomat, historian and journalist – and his impact upon American political and intellectual life.

244 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1970

About the author

Born to a wealthy Yankee family in Brooklyn, New York, Adams took his bachelor's degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1898, and a MA degree from Yale University in 1900. He entered investment banking, rising to partner in a New York Stock Exchange member firm. until 1912. In 1912, he considered his savings ample enough to switch his to a career as a writer.

Adams coined the term "American Dream" in his 1931 book The Epic of America. His American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.

An American historian, Adams wrote The Founding of New England (1921), which brought him the Pulitzer Prize in history for 1922, was followed by Revolutionary New England, 1691–1776 (1923) and New England in the Republic, 1776–1850 (1926). Among the best of his many books are Provincial Society, 1690–1763 (Vol. III in the “History of American Life” series, 1927) and The Epic of America (1931), which was widely translated. The Adams Family (1930) and Henry Adams (1933) were books on the famous Massachusetts clan, to which he was not related.

Reviews

[Steve Majerus-Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A spare biography of the great Henry Adams which glosses over the hard times and tells too little of the good to compensate. It fails to add to Adams' own Education and other books. Nonetheless, any work on Henry Adams is worth the time because any time spent considering his life is time well spent.