Henry Adams

Henry Adams was an American historian, writer and member of the Adams political family. His work examined American democracy, medieval culture and the disorienting forces of modern technology, most famously in The Education of Henry Adams.

Henry Adams was born in Boston and died in Washington, D.C.. A descendant of two American presidents, Adams worked as a journalist, historian and teacher before writing the autobiographical Education of Henry Adams; his histories and memoirs examined the transformation of American politics and society after the Civil War.

Gore Vidal’s Empire places Henry Adams among the writers, politicians and observers who inhabit the social world of America’s turn toward overseas power. Alongside John Hay, Henry James and William Randolph Hearst, Adams helps give the novel an intellectual vantage point on the Spanish-American War, presidential politics and the growth of a publicity-driven national culture. His presence reinforces Vidal’s contrast between private scepticism and the public enthusiasm surrounding the emergence of the United States as an imperial power.