Questions on "The Education of Henry Adams" by Henry Adams

Interpretive Questions

Why is this autobiography called The Education of Henry Adams? Of what does Adams consider his education to have truly consisted? What is his critique of his education?

On p. 66 Adams writes, "Supposing he had seen a New York stocklist of 1900, and had studied the statistics of railways, telegraphs, coal and steel -- would he have quitted his eighteenth century, his ancestral prejudices, his abstract ideals, his semiclerical training, and the rest, in order to perform an expiatory pilgrimage to State Street, and ask for the fatted calf of his grandfather Brooks and a clerkship to the Suffolk Bank?" What in Adams's mind, are the relative "advantages" of Quincy vs. Boston (as represented by State Street)?

Page 80: "This is the story of an education, and the person or persons who figure in it are supposed to have values only as educators or educated." This might make for a good intellectual autobiography, but does it give too narrow a portrait of its subject?

As a young boy Adams visited a slave state for for the first time. He writes (p.87, 88), "He took education politically," and "The more he was educated, the less he understood." Is the latter statement in keeping with Adams's theme of a proper education?

On page 109, Adams writes of the typical Harvard College graduate, "Afraid of serious risks, and still more afraid of personal ridicule, he seldom made a great failure of life, and nearly always led a life more or less worth living." Why does Adams have such a lukewarm view of his famous alma mater?

Does anything in this work presage Adams's future interested in politics? Will Adams regret not pursuing a high-profile political career as his illustrious relatives had?

Is Adams proud of the life he has led?

Why does Adams write in the third person if the subject is himself?

Who is the intended audience for The Education of Henry Adams?


Evaluative Questions

Adams writes (p.51) : "Politics as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds." Your reaction?

Which does Adams prefer, the "unity" of medieval life or the "multiplicity" of modern life?

For Textual Analysis

1. Pages 45 to 46, the Preface

2. Pages 73 to 75, beginning, "This political party became a chief influence ... " to "... but Mr Sumner was a different order -- heroic."

3. Pages 77 to 79, beginning, "Viewed from Mt. Vernon Street" ... to "... they exaggerated the literary and the political interests."

4. Pages 110 to 112, beginning, "Inevitably and effort leads to an ambition" to the end of the selection."

Henry Adams (1838-1918)

Henry Adams's Education recounts the author's life up through the year 1904. The book wasn't published until 1918, the year Adams died. It won a Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography in 1919.

Our selection this month consists of four chapters from the Education covering years he spent in four places: Quincy (1838-1848), Boston (1848-1854), Washington (1850-1854), Harvard College (1854-1858).

Adams was the great-grandson of President John Adams, grandson of Quincy Adams, and son of Charles Francis Adams, a politician and diplomat. Henry made his mark with his pen as a political lobbyist, journalist, and historian. For many years he circulated in elite circles of American politics and cultivated friendships with leading artists, scientists, and intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Adams is pictured here in his Harvard College graduation photo.