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Secondary sourceBook1919

The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, with a Study of John Quincy Adams

Henry Adams · 1919

A 1919 book of essays by Henry Adams, listing John Quincy Adams as a subject. It is a later interpretation of his views, not his own writing.

A later book that studies John Quincy Adams's views, so it is a secondary interpretation rather than his own writing.

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The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, with a Study of John Quincy AdamsPDF · 338 pages
Henry Adams, The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, 1919. Internet Archive scan.

About this source

What it is

This is a 1919 book of essays by Henry Adams, published by the Macmillan Company in New York. It includes an introduction by Brooks Adams. Its subject headings list John Quincy Adams, 1767-1848, along with History and Philosophy. A scanned copy is available from the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

This book is a later interpretation of John Quincy Adams's views, written more than seventy years after his death. It shows how a writer after his lifetime read his ideas about democracy and history. Because it is a later reading, it tells us as much about the author and his time as about the man it describes.

Look closer

  • The title names democracy and a dogma. What does the author think is wrong with democracy, and how does he show it?
  • How does the book's date, 1919, affect the way it describes an earlier president?
  • Which of John Quincy Adams's own words does the author quote, and which does he leave out?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of John Quincy Adams on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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