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The Political Philosophy of Henry Adams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Roger V. Shumate
Roger V. Shumate
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Extract

The use of superlatives is always dangerous, but it may be said, with little exaggeration, that Henry Adams was the Aristotle of America. His similarity to the great pupil of Plato, however, lies not so much in his influence upon subsequent thinkers as in the astonishing range of his interests and studies. Probably no other man of recent times has made such an ambitious effort as he to explore the entire realm of human knowledge and to deduce from it some logical answer to the riddle of the universe, with particular reference to the destiny of society. At a time when specialization had become the order of the day, and when it was considered presumptuous for a man to attempt to master more than one tiny segment of knowledge, he ranged the whole field like a titan, concerning himself with history, politics, economics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, anthropology, and psychology.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , August 1934 , pp. 599 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1934

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References

1 Inaugural address, On the Study of Politics, p. 10.

2 See his search for unity in Mont Saint Michel and Chartres.

3 The Tendency of History, pp. 4–5.

4 Ibid., p. 94.

5 The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, p. 127.

6 The Tendency of History, p. 48.

7 Ibid., pp. 163–166.

8 Ibid., p. 112.

9 Ibid., p. 126.

10 Ibid., Chap. 3.

11 The Education of Henry Adams, p. 226.

12 The Tendency of History, pp. 109–110, 118–119.

13 Ibid., pp. 166–167.

14 Brooks Adams, in a foreword to Adams, Henry, Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, pp. 114–115Google Scholar.

15 The Education of Henry Adams, p. 25.

16 Ibid., p. 275.

17 Ibid., p. 372.

18 Ibid., passim.

19 Ibid., p. 28.

20 Ibid., p. 262.

21 Brooks Adams, Foreword, pp. 104–108.

22 Ibid., p. 109.

23 Ibid., p. 110.

24 See Chapters of Erie, by Brooks and Henry Adams.

25 Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, passim.

26 The Education of Henry Adams, p. 281.

27 Ibid., p. 279.

28 Preface, pp. viii–ix.

29 Ibid., p. viii.

30 The Education of Henry Adams, Chap. 17.

31 The Tendency of History, p. 166.