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The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam
While the engravings are of a very high quality, there are very few of them. Maybe I misunderstood what the content of this book encompassed. I would not buy it again at the amazon purchase price, maybe at half the amount.

A Masterpiece!
I most say that this possible is one of the best and most inspiring books available for anyone interested in classical architecture. The Adams brothers style together with Louis XV is possibly the most modern interpretation of classical architecture. Highly recommendable and a must for anyone interested in classical architecture, beaux arts, etc. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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"Strictly, the Southerner had no mind; he had temperament. He was not a scholar; he had no intellectual training; he could not analyze an idea, and he could not even conceive of admitting two." This judgment, rendered in The Education of Henry Adams, may be the most quoted of Adams's writings on the South. However, it is far from the only one of his beliefs that helped to shape a national outlook on the region from the late antebellum period to the present.

Thinking about the South, says Michael O'Brien, was "part of being an Adams." In this book O'Brien shows how Adams (grandson of President John Quincy Adams and great-grandson of President John Adams) looked at the region during various phases of his life. O'Brien explores the cultural and familial impulses behind those views and locates them in American intellectual history. He begins with the young Henry Adams, who served as his father's secretary in the House of Representatives during the secession crises of 1860-1861 and in the American embassy in London during and after the Civil War, until 1868.

O'Brien then covers a number of topics relevant to Adams's outlook on the South, including his residency in that deceptively "southern" city, Washington, D.C.; his journalism on the Reconstruction-era South; his biographical or historical works on the Virginians John Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison; and his two novels, especially Democracy. Finally, O'Brien ponders the vein of southern self-criticism--exemplified by Wilbur J. Cash's Mind of the South--that embraces the notorious slur so often quoted from The Education of Henry Adams. ... Read more

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Henry Adams as a critic of southern culture
In his "Education," Henry Adams declared:"Strictly, the Southerner had no mind; he had temperament.He was not a scholar; he had no intellectual training; he could not analyze an idea, and he could not even conceive of admitting two."It is this "slur" which Professor O'Brien (author of the awesome "Conjectures of Order" and other tomes on Southern intellectual history) posits at the center of this most interesting volume. So,upon what experiences did Adams base his rather pessimistic assessment?One source of contact with the South was his grandmother Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, originally from Maryland, wife of John Quincy Adams. Much space is devoted to Louisa, perhaps too much, but this chapter does afford an interesting perspective on the formative stages of young Henry.More pertinent is the chapter on Henry Adams period of living in Washington and how this afforded him first-hand opportunities to encounter Southern traditions and attitudes. Any student of Adams will find this chapter irresistible. Another chapter ("American Types") focuses upon Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Henry's elder brother, who served extensively in the Civil War, and his potential influence.However, there is much fascinating information in this chapter aside from CFA, Jr., including a discussion of some of Henry's earlier writings which related to the South (the Randolph biography, e.g.) and his two novels.Finally, the author focuses upon Adams' later works (Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres and the Education) to probe the mature Adams view on Southern culture. Along the way there are interesting detours, such as some comments about W.J. Cash's "Mind of the South" and why there is definitely some sensitivity and defensiveness on this topic which linger even until today.Many interesting illustrations are included, among them some fine pictures taken by Clover Adams.The notes are extremely valuable. I don't know if we ever get to the point of completely understanding what causative factors shaped Adams' views of the South, or even if we are exposed to the entire range of his views, but this book is absolutely essential for gaining an invaluable insight into Adams. ... Read more

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"Halfway to Revolution" is a cultural portrait of possibly the most important American literary epoch, that of the years between 1865 and 1945, focusing on the work and lives of three of its central personalities - Henry Adams, William James and Gertrude Stein. The featured writers are treated as representative of certain bodies of knowledge and critical thinking about that knowledge - history, science, and literature - within which can be detected the deep changes and crises of form and content which characterize "modern thought". The major development Bush traces is derived from Hannah Arendt: the shift from "politics" to "society" as the key critical concept through which the world of artists and thinkers may be undrestood in this period. Adams in regard to history, James in regard to science, and Stein in regard to literature is each shown in conflict and confrontation with their respective disciplines, pushing against ethical and epistemological frontiers. In this book Bush links changes in thinking to a "real" history of social, economic and political life, incorporating biography and socio-political analysis. ... Read more

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Ray got away from the far north of Scotland years ago. Now Ray returns home to Chaimg, the man who loved him like a son and who lives a life of quiet old age with his granddaughter. For them, Ray's unheralded return is a welcome surprise. For Ray, it marks the dawning realization of what he's become. ... Read more

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A deep and penetrating work of art.
This book is not an ordinary biography. The author's extraordinary talent and insight bring forth the living principle that is Henry Adams. It will draw the attentive reader into Adams' world and one will come face to face with an original genius. And I would like to paraphrase Schopenhauer's definition that genius is the capacity to bring forth some light into this world of ignorance and darkness.

We experience the catastrophe of the American Civil War through the mind of Adams. We are given the usual dates and events, but at a deeper level we encounter "the inside narrative:" the petty bickering, plotting, blundering and revenge. On the other sidewe see skill and diplomacy; acts of kindness and compassion. It rises to the level of something Shakespearean, and leaves a strong impression of powerful collective forces to be reckoned with. So the book is not merely about individuals and events at a particular time in the past. It delves deeply into the great mystery of human nature.

Another thing I can say is that Dr. Chalfant's conversationalstyle is so pleasant to read that I frequently get pulled into it and have trouble putting the book down. Something someone once wrote about Robert Burton comes to mind. "While reading this book, one feels as if he is in the company of a good friend." ... Read more

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"Education had ended in 1871, life was complete in 1890." With this paradoxical statement from The Education of Henry Adams, Adams apparently dismissed from the record twenty of the most interesting and active years of his career. Those two decades embraced the first great productive season of his literary genius and the most significant years of his emotional life. Opening on the highest note of expectation and closing with his desperate flight to the South Seas in 1890, a divided and lonely figure, that season of fulfillment and inner growth is the subject of this book.

The relationship between Adams' life and writings grew steadily richer as his literary artistry matured, and with that process as his main concern, Mr. Samuels has written a book equally rewarding as a biography and as a critical study. Perhaps the greatest achievement biographically is a definitive and absorbing account of the true relationship between Henry Adams and his wife and an introduction to the grand passion for Elizabeth Cameron which was to affect the rest of his life. The whole intense inner drama of his feelings is really opened up for the first time, as often as possible in his own words, to the tragedy of his wife's suicide, the embittered years of work concluding the great History, and, finally, the escape to the South Seas in an effort to overcome the intolerable intensity of his love for Mrs. Cameron.

Through detailed analyses of Adams' writings, Mr. Samuels shows how all this drama had its counterpoint in his literary activities and eventually became transformed into works of literary art. Equally interesting is the way in which the ideas for his biographical and historical writing emerged from the wide sources of his reading, were tested in the remarkable give and take of hiscircle, and finally adapted to the themes of his writing.

This is the most exhaustive biographical and critical study of Adams' middle years ever made, and probably answers, so far as it is humanly possible, every unanswered question about Adams' life and the writing of his books. From the wealth of family papers deposited with the Massachusetts Historical Society and numerous other sources, Mr. Samuels has unveiled an increasingly complex personality - a brilliant mind in the grip of many prejudices and contradictions, yet one so terrifyingly honest that it more than ever defies explanation in any ordinary terms.

The mass of fresh materials used includes letters from correspondents around the world and admits us to the other side of the enormous dialogue which Adams carried on with the members of his circle. Certain finds have revealed some invaluable sidelights including a striking fragment of Adams' diary for 1888-1889; a sheaf of his sonnets to Elizabeth Cameron, and the unpublished remainder of his letters to his wife. Much untouched material has also come to light in newspapers, magazines, public archives, court records, memoirs, and biographies.

This is the second of three volumes of Mr. Samuels' definitive study of Henry Adams. The other two are The Young Henry Adams and Henry Adams: The Major Phase.

Customer Reviews (2)

Adams painted his masterpiece, but lost his foundation; Samuels solidifies Adams's place in history
History Book Club "Francis Parkman Prize Edition" reprint of 1958

Adams, the greatest historian of the 19th century, and the grandson and great-grandson of Presidents, is also an intriguing study in class, literature, poetry, wealth, and mind.Samuels is his most famous biographer, and this reprint covers the time period of 1877 to 1890, when Adams painted his masterpiece

(see my review of

History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (Library of America)
History of the United States During the Administrations of James Madison (Library of America))


while suffering his greatest loss, the suicide of wife Marian Hopper Adams.

Samuels reviews Adams's writings along with the biographical material and helps to solidify Adams's place in the historical pantheon.

An obnoxious snob
After eading this book, my opinion is that Henry Adams was an obnoxious Boston snob, overly impressed by his family and connections to the ruling elite. This can best be seen in the typical Brahmin's snide comments with regard to the rising tide of Irish immigration into the Boston area, and on the struggles of the oridnary working man in trying to better working conditions in the Age of the Robber Barons through unionization. He likened both groups to worthless louts utterly beneath his aristocratic contempt. My perception is that he was a shallow poseur. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

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Publisher: Edinburgh, London : W. Hodge ... Read more