In spite of his venerable political lineage that included U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Henry Adams is frequently ignored as a serious political thinker. Often dismissed by scholars as an acerbic and disappointed man who was a mere observer of American politics, history portrays Adam much like he described himself: as a "stable-companion to statesmen". A Political Companion to Henry illuminates Adams' writings and philosophy, revealing that he was far more under his exterior.

In this provocative collection, editor Natalie Fuehrer Taylor presents works by some of the leading political thinkers in America today -- scholars who challenge conventional judgments about the life and work of Henry Adams and credit him with revealing key insights into the nation's evolving democracy. A Political Companion to Henry Adams analyzes the political thinker and writer through the lenses of government, history, political science, and literature.

Coming of age during the Civil War, Henry Adams was an onlooker to the corrupt politics that ensued during the Gilded Age. In his declining years, he witnessed the rise of technology and anticipated the profound consequences technology would have on the American character. His personal experiences offer great insight into his published works include his Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography The Education of Henry Adams, Esther: A Novel, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, Democracy, and a nine-volume history, The History of the United States of America (1801 to 1817).

Often remembered as an ironic, cynical, sometimes bitter, critic of democracy, Adams was an astute observer of American politics. A Political Companion to Henry Adams fills a long-standing gap in scholarship with an appreciation of his musings on the human condition and political life at the eve of the twentieth century.

Natalie Fuehrer Taylor, assistant professor in the Department of Government at Skidmore College, is the author of The Rights of Woman as Chimera: The Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft.