Henry Adams and the Making of America

I was one of those who had only read "The Education" and found Adams a bit gloomy -- though his chapter "The Dynamo and The Virgin" I've found endlessly fascinating (see below). So, when I heard an NPR interview with Wills I bought the book. This is the point of the book: that historians and readers totally misinterpret Adams' view of America. He was a major and optimistic proponent of a United (!) States -- not a bunch of disparate states. So, another excellent book by Wills. Very good summary of the revolutionary period and especially the military problems (read Ellis' "His Excellency" on Washington soon after -- good combination). As a side note, what's always fascinated me about Adams is here's a guy born into a 19th century life of letters (dark wood paneled libraries, quill pens, science only just separating from philosophy); heir to some serious 18th century heavy hitters, who lives to see Einstein's papers on light and relativity published. I think Adams might qualify as the last true American man of letters; someone whose mind could encompass (almost, but maybe not quite) all of science, literature and philosophy. When science took off at the revolution in physics, I don't think such a broad understanding of intellectual life was possible anymore. Anyway, highly recommended. g.

This is an extraordinary book. Ignore the condescending New Yorker review. Methinks, like Wills' "ill-read" historians who never actually read Adams' Histories, the reviewer never finished reading the book he or she reviewed. Wills does a great job illuminating the preciousness with which many historians dismiss the work of their earlier peers. He also highlights the significant role Adams played in extending the use of original source materials in writing history. In this case Adams' connections played a huge role in gaining access to documents that would have been unavailable to many others. I particularly enjoyed Wills' exposition of Adams's treatment of the 1812 Naval War, where he traces the similarities and differences among Cooper, Mahan and Roosevelt's histories of the same engagements. Finally, Wills highlights Adams' interest and understanding of Government Finance which led him to emphasize the naivete of Jefferson's anti-Hamilton financial policies which in turn both helped trigger the War of 1812 and then brought it to an end. The book is a great read. The only down-side is that it is so good that readers may have an almost legitimate excuse for not finishing Adams' original Histories.

Henry Adams's nine-volume History of the United States in the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison is by all accounts the greatest historical study written about the United States. Adams begins with a survey of the condition of the United States in 1800, following the election of Thomas Jefferson. He concludes sixteen years later with a description of the United States in 1816, following the end of the War of 1812. For all the turmoil of these years, the country had grown and prospered, and attained something of a sense of itself as a nation. Adams researched his history meticulously, discovered previously unknown documents in the archives of England, France, and Spain, and produced a detailed diplomatic, military, and political history of the era between 1800 and 1816. Fortunately, Adams' history is accessible in its entirety to the interested reader in two volumes of the Library of America series. In his recent book, "Henry Adams and the Making of America" (2005), Garry Wills describes the creation of Adams's seminal history and leads the reader through Adams's work. Wills's book thus is in part a mirror, describing and commenting upon both Adams' history and the underlying subject of Adams' history -- the United States in the first 16 years of the Nineteenth Century -- and Wills explains why this history matters. Wills points out that Adams's history is too little known and read and that it is frequently misinterpreted. He offers two reasons for the misinterpretations. First, some readers assume that Adams's aim was to vindicate the policies of his great-grandfather, President John Adams, and his grandfather, President John Quincy Adams by deprecating the work of Jefferson and Madison. But Henry Adams did not have a high regard for the work of his illustrious ancestors. He is critical of them both and praises the work of Jefferson, in particular, in helping take the United States in a different, pragmatic, and democratic direction. Second, according to Wills, some readers tend to read Adams's histories backwards, through the world-weariness and pessimism expressed in Adams's most famous work, "The Education of Henry Adams". This reading overlooks the vitality, optimism, and sense of comedy that Adams brought to his History as he praised the sense of nationalism and progress that he found in the United States following the War of 1812. I think both Wills's points are well-taken. But it is also fair to say that the United States grew and developed, by 1816, almost in spite of itself. Adams was not making a case for Federalism, but he also was not entirely in the party of Jefferson and Madison. His book shows a fine sense of irony and ambiguity in considering the development of the United States. Thus, the thought of the book has ties to the "Education," in that it suggests the accidental, unplanned aspect of history,and also shows, as Wills points out, some effort to see the history of the United States in terms other than as

This book by Gary Wills will be of great value to anyone interested in Henry Adams, in the Jefferson and Madison administrations, and the writing of good American history. It is really several books in one. First, Wills poses the central query of the book: why are such outstanding historical contributions so little read or discussed today, especially since most everyone is familiar with Adams' Education? Basically, Wills in his Introduction concludes that most historians (such as Hofstadter) have only read the initial chapters which paint a less encouraging picture of the emerging United States than do the final chapters at the end of this long work. Also, it has often been assumed that Adams' history is really just an apologia ("the family feud" thesis) for John Adams and lacks independent professional judgment. The second focus of the book, and that which is of most interest to students of Adams, occupies the next six chapters. This section is designated as "The Making of An Historian," and is chock full of interesting facts about Adams and his development into an historian. His ties to the South through his grandmother; his period teaching history at Harvard where he pioneered in the development of archival research; his activities during the Civil War; his stab at postwar political reform; his early writings and editorship of the North American Review are all covered with typical Wills insight and analytical clarity. The bulk of the book is then devoted to a discussion of the actual histories of these two vital administrations. I found this to be less of interest as a student of Adams, although Wills is extraordinarily cogent in discussing his historical techniques (including archival research), but of great interest as a student of the early national period. Fortunately, Wills has utilized the widely available Library of America two-volume edition of the history, which facilitates greatly checking his references to the text. Adams' initial six chapters constitute an extremely useful survey of the United States at the start of Jefferson's first term. Then the narrative continues through both Jefferson terms. For Wills, Adams was attempting to demonstrate that national unity came out of Jefferson's administration because, ironically, it was well known that Jefferson placed such emphasis on localism, constitutional stringency and state control. There are very good discussions by Wills on the topics of the Burr trial, the Embargo, and the Louisiana purchase. Madison's terms are less brilliant for Adams, basically because Madison was not dynamic as a leader. Wills demonstrates how skillful a military-naval historian Adams was with his analysis of the War of 1812 (which I never really understood until reading this book), as well as his command of the financial dimensions of history. The book concludes with Wills' discussion of Adams' final chapters where he analyzes the United States at the close of Madison's administrations in 1817

Gary Wills contradicts the view that Adams history of the early American Republic was a critque of American imperialism but rather it showed Jefferson and Madison as being pragmatic expansionist. Jefferson abandoned his decentralizing inclinations during his presidential tenure by imposing a nationwide embargo against Great Britain and by including northern members in his Republican party thereby creating the basis for a national political party. Jefferson's successor Madison further advance the centralization of government by laying the basis for a national credit system and by using regular as opposed to militia forces during the War of 1812. Wills believes that Adams main purpose was to show that the founders were not bracketed in either Hamiltonian or Jefferson camps and were actually very pragmatic men that adjusted to events. I would reccomend this book for anyone who wants a new perspective of Henry Adams and his view of the founding fathers.