Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (d. 1918)
Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents.
As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams, Abraham Lincoln's ambassador to the United Kingdom. The posting influenced the younger man through the experience of wartime diplomacy, and absorption in English culture, especially the works of John Stuart Mill. After the American Civil War, he became a political journalist who entertained America's foremost intellectuals at his homes in Washington and Boston.
During his lifetime, he was best known for The History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, a nine-volume work, praised for its literary style, command of the documentary evidence, and deep (family) knowledge of the period and its major figures.
His posthumously published memoir, The Education of Henry Adams, won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to be named by the Modern Library as the best English-language nonfiction book of the 20th century.
1838Feb, 16
Henry Adams
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Events on 1838
- 6Jan
Telegraphy
Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code). - 28Jun
Queen Victoria
Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. - 18Aug
Puget Sound
The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads. - 3Sep
Frederick Douglass
Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. - 27Oct
Extermination Order (Mormonism)
Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.