"Democracy, An American Novel"

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews Henry Adams' book "Democracy, An American Novel", set in Washington, D.C., in the 1870s, during the highly emotional period after the Civil War. The paper relates the story of the book as well as the message conveyed regarding Adams' skepticism about politics in the United States. The paper further relates that, in the book, Adam points out serious national problems being handled by politicians pretending to know what they are doing. The writer specifically discusses her appreciation for the clever and creative way that Adams used a woman, Madeleine Lee, a widow, as an important character in the book.

From the Paper:

"Henry Adams was the son of a well-known congressman (Charles Francis Adams), a teacher at Harvard University, and he was also a journalist, travel writer, editor and he wrote novels, the best known being The Education of Henry Adams: A Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for The Education of Henry Adams, posthumously. His historical writings about Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were respected; other works he wrote, including The Education of Henry Adams, were considered satirical and used irony and humor to critique the system of education that he thought had failed his generation and not prepared his generation for the industrial revolution."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Adams, Henry. 1908. Democracy, An American Novel. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

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