CliffsNotes on

The Education of Henry Adams

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Book Summary

Henry Adams Biography

Personal Background
Selected Writings and Reputation

About The Education of Henry Adams

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 List

Character Map

Character Analysis

Henry Adams
John Hay
Charles Francis Adams
Clarence King

Critical Essays

The Education of Henry Adams as Experimental Literature

Study and Homework Help

Full Glossary for The Education of Henry Adams
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Essay Questions
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Summaries and Commentaries

Chapter XXX (Vis Inertiae)

Adams turns his attention back to international politics and his friend John Hay, now at "the summit of his career." Henry attempts to speak of the political influence of nations in terms of inertia and is specifically interested in Russia, China, and the Russo-Japanese War. He fears that the Open Door to China is about to be closed, perhaps permanently. Adams discusses his attitude toward women and comments on the emancipation of the gender in America in the early 1900s as well as the dangers that he thinks this entails. He mentions women's "superiority" but in a somewhat patronizing and limited way.

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