CliffsNotes on

The Education of Henry Adams

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About the Author

Personal Background
Selected Writings and Reputation

About the Novel

Introduction
A Brief Synopsis
List of Characters
Character Map

Summaries and Commentaries

Chapter I (Quincy)
Chapter II (Boston)
Chapter III (Washington)
Chapter IV (Harvard College)
Chapter V (Berlin)
Chapter VI (Rome)
Chapter VII (Treason)
Chapter VIII (Diplomacy)
Chapter IX (Foes or Friends)
Chapter X (Political Morality)
Chapter XI (The Battle of the Rams)
Chapter XII (Eccentricity) and Chapter XIII (The Perfection of Human Society)
Chapter XIV (Dilettantism)
Chapter XV (Darwinism)
Chapter XVI (The Press)
Chapter XVII (President Grant)
Chapter XVIII (Free Fight)
Chapter XIX (Chaos)
Chapter XX (Failure)
Chapter XXI (Twenty Years After)
Chapter XXII (Chicago)
Chapter XXIII (Silence) and Chapter XXIV (Indian Summer)
Chapter XXV (The Dynamo and the Virgin)
Chapter XXVI (Twilight) and Chapter XXVII (Teufelsdröckh)
Chapter XXVIII (The Height of Knowledge)
Chapter XXIX (The Abyss of Ignorance)
Chapter XXX (Vis Inertiae)
Chapter XXXI (The Grammar of Science)
Chapter XXXII (Vis Nova)
Chapter XXXIII (A Dynamic Theory of History) and Chapter XXXIV (A Law of Acceleration)
Chapter XXXV (Nunc Age)

Character Analyses

Henry Adams
John Hay
Charles Francis Adams
Clarence King

Critical Essay

The Education Of Henry Adams as Experimental Literature

Study Help

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Essay Questions
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Cite this Literature Note

How important is it to you to have the hottest new cell phone?

No question. Gotta have the latest, greatest.
Doesn’t matter, as long as it has everything I want.
Couldn’t care less. I could do without a celly altogether.

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Summaries and Commentaries

Chapter XXIX (The Abyss of Ignorance)

coquetry  flirting.

vis a tergo   (Latin) force from behind.

kinetic  of or caused by motion.

metaphysics  the branch of philosophy that seeks to explain the nature of being or reality (ontology) and the origin and structure of the universe (cosmology); it is closely related to the study of the nature of knowledge (epistemology).

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