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

Quiz
Identify the Quote
Essay Questions
Practice Projects

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Quiz

1:  As a boy, Henry spends summers in

a. Marblehead

b. Newport

c. Quincy

d. Salem
2:  As a senior at Harvard, Henry is named

a. Valedictorian

b. Salutatorian

c. winner of the Bowdoin Prize

d. Class Orator
3:  In Berlin, Adams spends most of his class time studying

a. German language at a prep school

b. cooking at the Küchenchef

c. writing at the Urheber

d. history at the University of Berlin
4:  Henry’s sister Louisa dies as the result of

a. childbirth

b. malaria

c. consumption

d. tetanus
5:  Henry meets Clarence King at

a. John Hay’s wedding

b. a geological expedition

c. Mansfield Park

d. a political rally in London
6:  The leader of the slum gang in the infamous snowball fight is

a. Conky Daniels

b. Eliot Gould

c. Charlie Eliot

d. Billy McKinley
7:  In Washington, Henry’s next-door neighbor and close friend, who eventually becomes Secretary of State, is

a. John LaFarge

b. John Marshall

c. John Cabot

d. John Hay
8:  The woman who becomes Henry’s emotional confidante after Marian’s suicide is

a. Elizabeth Montgomery

b. Elizabeth Cameron

c. Elizabeth Barrett

d. Elizabeth Whitney
9:  As a journalist, Henry investigates a scheme in which financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempt to corner the market on

a. cattle

b. silver

c. gold

d. copper
10:  Who said the following: "Venice would be a fine city if it were drained."

a. Henry Adams

b. Ulysses S. Grant

c. William Shakespeare

d. William Seward
11:  Who said the following: Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy "have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made, what is more than either, they have made a nation."

a. Chancellor of the Exchequer William Ewart Gladstone

b. Queen Victoria

c. Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston

d. British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell
12:  Who said the following: "Who is not lost in wild surmise at the crux?"

a. Thurlow Weed

b. Samuel Johnson

c. Ernest Samuels

d. Count Arthur Cassini



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