The works of Henry Adams have received a tremendous amount of critical attention, with the majority of the scrutiny being directed at Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1904) and The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography (1907). These two works, along with Memoirs of Marau Taaroa, Last Queen of Tahiti (1893), have established Adams as an important contributor not only to American intellectual history but also to the field of travel writing. The three books all display Adams's concern with using travel writing as a way to re-create lost historical epochs and as a method for reflecting on the course of human development. Adams will be long remembered for using travel experiences to understand human society as well as the soul.

One of the greatest intellectuals and historians the United States has produced, Henry Adams was born in Boston on 16 February 1838 to Charles Francis Adams and Abigail Brooks Adams, members of a wealthy...