Historian, Writer

Illustrious Family.

Born in Massachusetts in 1838, Henry Adams was descended from a long line of distinguished American statesmen. His great-grandfather John Adams and grandfather John Quincy Adams had both served as president of the United States, and his father, Charles Francis Adams, was a congressman and diplomat. His childhood instilled in him a belief in the virtues of public duty and political service, and as a youth he had little reason to doubt that he, too, would advance to national public office as an adult. Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1858, traveled and studied in Europe for two years, then served as his father's private secretary, first in Washington, D.C., and then in London following Charles Francis Adams's appointment as ambassador to the Court of St. James's.

A Passion for History.

In 1868 Henry Adams returned to Washington and, appalled by the corruption...