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"Democracy" is one of the best political novels of all time and speaking as a denizen of the nation's capital, very little has changed. Esther is attempt deal with the "woman question." Clearly the inspiration of both books is Mrs. Henry Adams. Known as "Voltaire in petticoats" (Henry James), she later tragically took her own life following a period of depression. The death of his wife led to Henry Adams' retirement from public life. This subject is covered in Ernest Samuels' wonderful biography (which I also recommend).
I suggest a look at his biography since the subject of Marion Clover Adams is avoided entirely in "The Education of Henry Adams." Henry Adams may not discuss his wife, but he does touch on nearly everything else of importance in his autobiography. "Growing up Adams," life in Europe with Garibaldi's forces, life at the British legation in London during the Civil War are all addressed. The best and probably the most key chapter in the book is the one entitled "The Virgin and Dynamo." Adams uses the 1876 cenntenial fair as a departure to meditate of the impact of the industrial revolution. Adams believed with the growth of technology that man would somehow outgrow the simple humanity of the Middle Ages (it would have been interesting if Adams had lived long enough to meet someone like Carl Jung to see what he would have to say on this subject!). One of the foremost historians (the Library of America has also issued the history of Jefferson and Madison's Administrations, which is a classic), Adams became interested in the Middle Ages and his survey of the two great cathedrals of France Chartes and Mont St. Michel is the final book in the volume. I cannot recommend this book too highly, it is a must for all fans of Henry Adams and those who would like to experience him for the first time.
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The easiest way to describe the value of Przeworski and Teune's insights is to see how cross-national country studies can be used to emulate the experimenter's scientific approach to finding pattterns. The experimenter can "hold other variables constant" through statistical means or the selection of people or cases to study. When looking at countries (or U.S. states) a selection of "cases" can be fashioned that emulates in different kinds of experimental controls. In particular the authors describe a pair of strategies: The Most Different Nation and the Most Similar Nation strategies.
In the Most Different model the analyst selects cases (countries) which are known to be very different from one another: e.g., Korea, Australia, Germany, Ecuador, South Africa.... This model is best for the generation of hypotheses because one assumes that the variable of interest will vary widely across the different countries. On the other hand the Most Similar model is best for hypothesis testing, and it is here that the "hold constant" idea is seen: Sweden, Norway, Denmark are similar enough on many key variables, so that those variables are in a sense "held constant". Or Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK -- for linguistic purposes. etc.
These models become even more valuable with the 50 U.S. states because there are many more opportunities to use demographic, economic, and historical variables in the selection of Most Different or Most Similar cases.
The book is well worth the investment of money and time for any who want to use the Nations of the world of the States of U.S. to explore or test questions and hypotheses about processes and linkages that are directly amenable to usual scientific analysis.
On one level, the most obvious one, Adam's book is a sometimes idiosyncratic history of Medieval art, literature, and religion that takes as its center of gravity the great Gothic cathedrals of the period--structures that Adams thinks sum up what the middle ages are all about. To read the book on this level alone is fine. It provides intriguing insights into, for example, courtly love and the cult of Mary.
But I now believe that, at a deeper level, the book is disguised autobiography on the one hand and a backhanded history of Adams's own time on the other. An at times overwhelming sense of nostalgia permeates the book. In reading Adams on the 11th century mystics, the debates of the schoolmen, the chansons of the troubadours, and the unified worldview of the middle ages, one can almost hear him sigh with longing to return to a world which, he thinks, was whole, unfractured, and pure--a world, as the medievals themselves would've said, which reflects "integritas." This reveals a great deal about the restless, unquiet nature of Henry Adams the man. But it also reveals the restless, unquiet nature of the modern era which spawned and molded him: the gilded age, the fast-paced first wave of capitalism, secularism, and consumerism, which has no center of gravity, no art, no tradition. And even though we claim to be living in a "postmodern" age, it seems to me that a great deal of the qualities Adams deplored in his own times are still with us and account for our own sense of homelessness.
*Mont Saint Michel and Chartres,* then, is more than a quaint turn-of-the-last-century history. Read correctly, it's also a mirror of our present discontent. Highly recommended.
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My only request for improvement would be the addition of an introduction that gives a clearer picture of the reasons for the conflict.
As a definite Elting fan, that is enough for me to buy, read, and use the book. It should also be enough for any historian/reader to buy this volume.
An extract of the much larger A History of the United States during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison published almost a century ago, this history of a war the United States almost lost was originally published by the Infantry Journal at Fort Benning, GA. It was, and still is, the best one volume history of that war.
Adams had access to US Government papers and spent almost three years in European archives, many of those references now unfortunately lost because of two world wars. What he gives you is both the military and diplomatic side, and also some interesting views of the events interaction with the larger 'disagreement' going on at the time in Europe centering around Napoleon, Emperor of the French.
What you see is what you get. It is a great story, boldly and accurately told that has stood the test of time. It is highly recommended, and the introduction by Col Elting neatly says it all. The best purely military history is Col Elting's Amateurs! To Arms. Taken together they are incredible-two books you will never forget and will read and reread.
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The marvels of Adams's novel are his remarkably nuanced and fully realized characters. Esther, the free-thinker, wants to share her lover's faith and "is trying to get it by reason"--but doesn't initially understand that a person "can never reason yourself into it." Mr. Hazard, the minister, is confident that he will "succeed in drawing her into the fold, because his lifelong faith, that all human energies belonged to the church, was on trial, and, if it broke down in a test so supreme as that of marriage, the blow would go far to prostrate him forever." Esther's principles of independence and self-education collide with Hazard's desire to steer her into submission as his wife and fellow believer.
But my favorite character is relegated to a supporting role: Catherine, a recent transplant from the frontiers of Colorado, befriends Esther and dazzles New York society with her innocence, naivete, and sincerity. It's never really quite clear, however, whether her simplicity is the genuine article or just a show mocking the pretensions of her admirers. As one of the intellectuals who lightheartedly teases her wonders, there was "a little doubt whether she was making fun of him or he of her, and she never left him in perfect security on this point."
The novel sparkles with banter and quarrels, jokes and ripostes, but any attempt to reproduce the humor in a short review would fall flat: Adams's witticisms are dependent upon context and character. Still, I caught myself laughing out loud often at the book's cleverness and hilarity.
"Children today are starved for the image of real heroes. Celebrities are not the same thing as heroes. Heroes existed way before celebrities ever did, even though celebrities now outshine heroes in children's consciousness."
"Worshiping celebrities leaves children with a distinctly empty feeling -- it doesn't teach that they'll have to make sacrifices if they want to achieve anything worthwhile. No- talents become celebrities all the time. The result is that people don't seem to care about achievement or talent -- fame is the only objective."
"... Despite immense differences in cultures, heroes around the world generally share a number of traits that instruct and inspire people. A hero does something worth talking about, but a hero goes beyond mere fame or celebrity. The hero lives a life worthy of imitation. If they serve only their own fame, they may be celebrities but not heroes. Heroes are catalysts for change. They create new possibilities. They have a vision, and the skill and charm to implement their vision."
"Heroes may also be fictional. Children may identify with a character because of the values projected. People tend to grow to be like the people that they admire, but if a child never has any heroes what images will he copy? Adults need heroes too, but the need is even more urgent for children because they don't know how to think abstractly. But they can imagine what their hero would do in the circumstances, and it gives them a useful reference point to build abstract thinking skills."
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