Henry Adams (1) (1838–1918)

If you know a lot about the history of the second half of the 19th century, you will probably enjoy this book much more than the casual and the curious, as Adams does a lot of name-dropping without any kind of footnotes or contextual explanation. I was especially interested in Adams' description of his time as private secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams, Lincoln's ambassador in England during the Civil War, and the diplomatic and political machinations that ocurred while trying to secure Britain's official neutrality.

There are some slow parts of the book, and his attempt to conclude with an overarching theory of history, detailed in scientific language, is unsuccessful in hindsight. Adams' ideas about the accelerating progress of technology and thought is really the culmination of Englightenment thinking, which would be disavowed by the modernists ten years after his death. Perhaps Adams would have revised his thinking if he had lived to see the cataclysm of 1914, and it is ironic how in the last lines of the book he wistfully hopes for a centenial reunion with his best friends King and Hay, to observe the progress and peace that humanity had created. The year: 1938.… (lisätietoja)

Democracy: This novel was published anonymously in the 1880s and concerns a young wealthy widow and her young unmarried sister traveling and staying in Washington, D. C. The heroine, Madeline Lee, is intelligent, bored with New York and Europe, and wants the opportunity to learn a bit about how politics work. Through Lee's eyes, you learn how Washington works and the kind of men who live and work there. There are Senators, lawyers, and visiting dignitaries set in post-Civil War D. C. A little love story thrown in and a big ball makes the story appealing to those of us who like that thing and of course, the true lesson here about Washington is "same as it ever was."… (lisätietoja)