Both Sides of the Ocean—A Biography of Henry Adams: His First Life, 1838-1862 (review)

182CIVIL war HISTORY The ascendance of an urban middle class, now less dependent on the planters and more powerful in its political and ideological leverage, was one of the key features of the New South. Though some New South prophets, like Henry Grady, felt obligated to patronize the Lost Cause, if only to prove their loyalty to the South, historians should be wary of such rhetorical ploys. Goldfield's closing chapter on the urban South after 1920 pushes the themes of persistent rural influence, racism, and colonial economic dependence into the era of the "sunbelt." Again, the stress on continuity and regional distinctiveness occasionally obscures the important changes that took place in the cities of the South in a period characterized by tremendous migration and economic development. Readers need not agree with all aspects of the author's provocative argument to profit from a thoughtful and finely written interpretation of the South from the refreshing perspective of a historian who is now one of the leading authorities on the urban South. Don H. Doyle Vanderbilt University Both Sides of the Ocean—A Biography of Henry Adams: His First Life, 1838-1862. By Edward Chalfant. (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1982. Pp. 475. $32.50.) In the first installment of a projected three volume biography of Henry Adams, Edward Chalfant takes his subject from boyhood through Harvard College tohis earlycareerasnewspaper correspondentand private secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams. Henry Adams led an adventurous life during these years, observing Garibaldi's triumphs, Washington politics during the critical winter of 1860-61, and the English reaction to the American Civil War. Unlike those biographers who treat these early years merely as foreshadowing later events, however , Chalfant insists that Adams's first twenty-four years are noteworthy on their own merits. By 1862, he argues, Adams "had completed one life," becoming a power to be reckoned with in American politics, shaping public opinion through his newspaper columns, and acting behind the scenes to influence political decisions. According to Chalfant, young Adams was "set apart from other human beings mainly by havingalways known he mattered." Adams not only "knew his life would be important," he "was great already." Chalfant further assures us that Adams possessed "preternatural abilities," including "his ability to foreknow his own future." For example, Chalfant asserts "with considerable assurance" that Adams conceived of both his brilliant History and The Education of Henry Adams in 1860, basing his claim on a letter Adams wrote that year in which he mentioned that he was "strongly tempted" to become a historian after reading Edward Gibbon's autobiography. In fact, Adams's writing of the History "was BOOK REVIEWS183 always fated and compulsory," according to Chalfant. And if this were not amazing enough, Chalfant implies that Adams's reports to the New York Times from London during the Trent affair made a considerable contribution to the peaceful resolution of the crisis. While Chalfant admits that the "precise degree" of Adams's influence in the Trent affair is uncertain, the book jacket foregoes such modesty, proclaiming that Adams "predecided" the outcome: thus, "as much as anyone," he was responsible for the North's ultimate triumph in 1865. Most historians will find these assertions overstated, even absurd. Neither Norman B. Ferris nor Gordon H. Warren mention Adams as a key figure in their studies of the Trent affair. At best, Adams was only one of many advocates of a peaceful solution. Most disturbing, however , is Chalfant's inability to deal with Henry Adams as a human being. William Dusinberre and David Contosta have convincingly argued that Adams was confused and unsure of himself as a young man, afraid of failing to live up to the high expectations inherent in being an Adams. Often Adams's puffery and conceit exposed his self-doubt even as he sought to conceal it. Instead of exploring Adams's struggle to create an identity which reconciled his personal ambitions with the family heritage , Chalfant claims thatAdams knew who hewas from the start. In the spirit of Parson Weems, Chalfant erects a mythical image of his subject, offering the result as a model which "deserves imitation" by today's youth. Henry Adams oncelikened biography...