Back to the roots! (or: new novel, good old Adams)

[David Casseres]

Another fine passage from that chapter:

"Education ran riot at Chicago, at least for retarded minds which had
never faced in concrete form so many matters of which they were
ignorant. Men who knew nothing whatever -- who had never run a
steam-engine, the simplest of forces -- who had never put their hands
on a lever -- had never touched an electric battery -- never talked
through a telephone, and had not the shadow of a notion what amount of
force was meant by a watt or an ampere or an erg, or any other term of
measurement introduced within a hundred years -- had no choice but to
sit down on the steps and brood as they had never brooded on the
benches of Harvard College, either as student or professor, aghast at
what they had said and done in all these years, and still more ashamed
of the childlike ignorance and babbling futility of the society that
let them say and do it.

On 7/18/06, Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
> Good find for Kai. I had already started reading the chapter but
> hadn't yet come to the quote (near the end) when Doug's url arrived.
> Always better to have your text machine searchable.
>
> By the  way the url is identical to the 1918 edition which  I was
> reading from.  (only difference is the lines are extended out
> horizontally making the pages too short looking)
>
> Wonder if the new book will include the Panic (depression)  of '93 as
> well as the world's fair?
>
> Adams is very quaint.  Wonder how he interpreted that question about
> where America was driving to?
>
> Adam's seems always careful to acknowledge his amateur standing
> whatever the topic is.
>
> P.
>
>
>
> On Jul 18, 2006, at 12:54 PM, Dave Monroe wrote:
>
> > Definitely.  If that blurb didn't mention Adams, The
> > Devil in the White City did.  SOMEBODY did. I knew I
> > should've followed up on that.  Kai for the kill ...
> >
> > But speaking of (2) and/or (3) ...
> >
> > http://www.bartleby.com/159/22.html
> >
> > http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/hadams/eha22.html
> >
> > --- davemarc <davemarc at panix.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I think Kai could be on to something here....
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <kflorentzen at web.de>
> >>
> >>> The twentysecond (!) chapter of "The Education
> >>> of Henry Adams" is titled:
> >>
> >>> "Chicago (1893)".
> >>
> >>> In there it says: "Chicago asked in 1893 for the
> >>> first time the question whether the American
> >>> people knew where they were driving. Adams
> >>> answered, for one, that he did not know, but
> >>> would try to find out" ....
> >
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