Henry Adams Accomplishments

“All experience is an arch to build upon.” (Adams) This was the basis of the philosophy of a man who saw beyond what most only begin to realize after a lifetime of education. My great granduncle, Henry Adams, reached behind the curtain of politics and law to discover their flaws. He realized that the students in the most prestigious educational institutes were gaining a useless education and not thoroughly learning. In order to learn, one must experience and completely comprehend the issues being taught. This occurs only through experience. His life was a narrative of discoveries about society and the destructive properties of power. Henry Adams’s knowledge was a wonder of encounters, connecting what he was taught to what he learned through

They were direct descendants of the Puritans living in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whom of which were the ‘Founding Fathers’ of New England. Massachusetts Bay Colony, commonly known as “A City on the Hill”, had merged with Plymouth Colony, which was one of the first settlements in America. It had some of the earliest forms of government of this nation, which fit the profile for the future descends of the people living there. Henry Adams broke the mold of his grandfather and uncle by becoming a journalist, secretary to his father (who was in the house of representatives) and philosopher. His life was important to many historians today because it gave a second perspective on the history of the 19th and 20th

While studying, he managed to get involved in the Harvard Magazine and other minor journalism positions. On September 19th, 1858, he sailed from the United States to Liverpool, England in celebration of the Grand Tour of Europe. This served as an educational right of passage, which originated, during the time of the Renaissance. When he arrived, he attended a university as a student of civil law in Berlin. After completing a year there, he transferred to a German secondary school, which was when he was first taught the importance of writing about one’s experiences. So, he proceeded to write an article about his winter’s experience in Germany. It was published posthumously in the American Historical Review in 1947. Over the next three years, he ventured around Austria, Switzerland and Italy, making stops along the way to visit his sister, Louisa Kuhn. In Italy, he met a Italian patriot whose life fascinated Adams to the extent that he published the Italian’s letters in the Boston Daily Courier. Satisfied with his new found knowledge about the world, he returned to his father, as he had been re-elected to Congress. While embarking on his journey home, he came across the realization that he had gained more knowledge traveling and communicating with others for three years than he learned in four years of the