Henry Adams and the Southern Question
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Georgia Press
Published:30th Apr '07
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Strictly, the Southerner had no mind; he had temperament. He was not a scholar; he had no intellectual training; he could not analyze an idea, and he could not even conceive of admitting two. This judgment, rendered in ""The Education of Henry Adams"", may be the most quoted of Adams' writings on the South. It is, however, far from the only one of his beliefs that helped shape a national outlook on the region from the late antebellum period to the present. Thinking about the South, says Michael O'Brien, was ""part of being an Adams."" Here O'Brien considers how Adams (grandson of President John Quincy Adams and great-grandson of President John Adams) looked at the region during various phases of his life. At the same time, O'Brien explores the cultural and familial impulses behind those views and locates them in American intellectual history.
The writing, sparkling with wit, is vintage O'Brien and insights abound. - Journal of American History ""Short but illuminating... A perceptive reader of Adams, O'Brien also brings to this study an extensive knowledge of southern historiography and Adams's contribution to it."" - Journal of Southern History ""A delightful read... This slim volume is well suited for a thoughtful seminar where discussions can range from Southern regional identity to Anglo-European travel literature to feminist political ideology in an easy and familiar way."" - H-South ""The reader will learn nearly as much about Adams's crankiness toward New England, counterpoint to that balmier region, as about his deprecations and appreciations of the South. And learn the reader will, on almost every page."" - Journal of American History ""O'Brien supplies a unique perspective on a much-studied dynasty.... Worth a look by anyone interested in intellectual, cultural, or southern history."" - Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
ISBN: 9780820329567
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 273g
216 pages