Charles Francis Adams, Jr, 1835-1915: The Patrician at Bay

by Edward Chase Kirkland

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Kevin A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography, though published in 1962, really belongs to an earlier era. Written by Edward Chase Kirkland, emeritus professor of history at Bowdoin, this is an admiring portrait of someone in tension with his own esteemed lineage. Charles Francis Adams Jr. was partly iconoclast, partly a defender of the old ways, involved in many things including railroads (as a regulator and then an executive and investor) and a historian (mostly as an orator, though wrote articles as well and served as longtime president of the Massachusetts Historical Society.) He also served as a longtime overseer at Harvard where he mostly supported Eliot’s reforms, particularly championing the elimination of Ancient Greek as an entrance requirement. He was heavily involved in the civic affairs of Quincy before he decided it had grown beyond recognition and he retreated to rural Lincoln. He began as a Republican who served many years in the Union Army, then as a Mugwump, to reform Democrat and then conservative Democrat. When given the choice between William Jennings Bryan and Theodore Roosevelt, he chose neither.

I confess I mostly read this book as artifact of WASP hegemony; few now would deem him worthy of a biography. Indeed, I had previously confused him with both his father (ambassador to Britain during the Civil War) and his more famous brother, Henry Adams. CFA Jr. is one who has shrunken in significance during the century since his death as other members of his family have not.

[Bruce Nesmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, concise but informative biography. Used a lot of quotes from Adams's diary and letters. Fascinated by the great diversity of Adams's career.