In any catalogue of famous American families, the Adams name takes second place to none. John and John Quincy Adams were first and second generation Presidents, and in the fourth generation Charles Francis Jr., Brooks, and Henry Adams all gained renown as historians and writers. Upon closer study, however, the story of the Adamses presents us with something more significant than an example of sequential biography; rather, it suggests a fascinating historical and literary problem. For what began as a political dynasty endured three generations later as a family literary society, effectively divorced from the exercise of those powers which had once appeared to be a birthright. A dramatic transition from political leadership to literary notoriety had been completed; and this change symbolized the alteration in Adams family fortunes between 1828 and 1920. Even as it was taking place, moreover, this shift in the nature and character of family activities and attainments puzzled and sometimes tortured those members of the third and fourth generations who felt themselves being made the victims of the change. Brooks Adams, for example, shows his anguished response in ‘The Heritage of Henry Adams’ and Law of Civilization and Decay; and Henry Adams registers his own surprise and cool horror when he contemplates the fate of the Adamses in The Education of Henry Adams.