Brooks Adams

American historian and political scientist (1848–1927)

Not to be confused with Brooke Adams or Adam Brooks.

Brooks Adams

Adams, photographed in 1910.

Born| June 24, 1848
Quincy, Massachusetts, United States
Died| February 13, 1927(1927-02-13) (aged 78)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation| Historian
Nationality| American
Alma mater| Harvard College
Harvard Law School (did not graduate)
Spouse| Evelyn Davis
Parents| Charles Francis Adams Sr.
Abigail Brown Brooks
Relatives| John Quincy Adams (grandfather)
Peter Chardon Brooks (grandfather)
John Adams (great grandfather)
Henry Cabot Lodge (brother-in-law)

Peter Chardon Brooks Adams (June 24, 1848 – February 13, 1927) was an American attorney, historian, political scientist and a critic of capitalism.[1]

## Early life and education[edit]

Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on June 24, 1848, son of Charles Francis Adams and Abigail Brown Brooks.[2] He attended schools in the United States and in Europe.[2]

Adams was a great-grandson of President John Adams, a grandson of President John Quincy Adams, the youngest son of U.S. diplomat Charles Francis Adams, and brother to Charles Francis Adams Jr. and Henry Adams. He was a philosopher, historian, and novelist, whose theories of history were influenced by his work. His maternal grandfather was Peter Chardon Brooks, the wealthiest man in Boston at the time of his death.

He graduated from Harvard University in 1870 and studied at Harvard Law School in 1870 and 1871.[2] Adams was secretary to his father in Geneva, in 1872, where the latter was an arbitrator upon the Alabama claims, under the "Treaty of Washington."[2] He was admitted to the bar in 1873, practiced law in Boston until 1881, and then devoted himself to literary work.[2]

## Social theories[edit]

Adams believed that commercial civilizations rise and fall in predictable cycles. First, masses of people draw together in large population centers and engage in commercial activities. As their desire for wealth grows, they discard spiritual and creative values. Their greed leads to distrust and dishonesty, and eventually the society crumbles when a new, more economically energetic society takes its place.

In The Law of Civilization and Decay (1896), Adams noted that as new population centers emerged in the west, centers of world trade shifted from Constantinople to Venice to Amsterdam to London. This work has been compared to the later, longer works Decline of the West (1918) by Oswald Spengler and A Study of History (1934–61) by Arnold Toynbee.[3][4][5]

> "In proportion as movement accelerates societies consolidate, and as societies consolidate they pass through a profound intellectual change. Energy ceases to find vent through the imagination and takes the form of capital; hence as civilizations advance, the imaginative temperament tends to disappear, while the economic instinct is fostered and thus substantially new varieties of men come to possess the world.

> Nothing so portentous overhangs humanity as this mysterious and relentless acceleration of movement, which changes methods of competition and alters paths of trade; for by it countless millions of men and women are foredoomed to happiness or misery as certainly as the beasts and trees, which have flourished in the wilderness, are destined to vanish when the soil is subdued by man.

> The Romans amassed the treasure by which they administered their Empire, through the plunder and enslavement of the world. The Empire cemented by that treasure crumbled when adverse exchanges carried the bullion of Italy to the shore of the Bosphorus. An accelerated movement among the semi-barbarians of the West caused the agony of the Crusades, amidst which Constantinople fell as the Italian cities rose; while Venice and Genoa, and with them the whole Arabic civilization, shriveled when Portugal established direct communication with Hindoostan.

> The opening of the ocean as a highroad precipitated the Reformation and built up Antwerp, while in the end it ruined Spain; and finally the last great quickening of the age of steam, which centralized the world at London, bathed the earth in blood from the Mississippi to the Ganges. Thus religions are preached and are forgotten, empires rise and fall, philosophies are born and die, art and poetry bloom and fade, as societies pass from the disintegration wherein imagination kindles to the consolidation whose pressure ends in death."

> —The Law of Civilization and Decay (1896)[6]

Adams predicted in America's Economic Supremacy (1900) that an "Anglo-Saxon alliance" would arise in opposition to China and that New York City would become the center of world trade.[7]

## Personal life[edit]

In 1889, Adams married Evelyn Davis, the daughter of Admiral Charles Henry Davis. They did not have children.[8] Evelyn Davis's sister Anna was the wife of Henry Cabot Lodge. Her sister Louisa was the wife of John Dandridge Henley Luce, the son of Stephen Luce.

Brooks Adams hired Wilhelmina Harris as social secretary for himself and his wife in 1920.[9] Harris lived with and worked for them until both Brooks and Evelyn died.

## Recognition[edit]

He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1918.[10]

## Legacy[edit]

Brooks Adams was the last Adams family member to live at Peacefield. After Adams's death, in accordance with his wishes, the house became a museum, first run through the family and then later by the National Park Service. Today, Peacefield is part of Adams National Historical Park.

## Portraits[edit]

* Brooks Adams with horse and dog, photograph by Marian Hooper Adams, ca. 1883.

* Picture of Brooks Adams, n.d.

## Family tree[edit]

* v
* t
* e

Adams family tree

| | | | | | | | | | John Adams
(1735–1826)| | Abigail Adams (née Smith)
(1744–1818)|

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| William Stephens Smith
(1755–1815)| | Abigail Amelia Adams Smith
(1765–1813)| | John Quincy Adams
(1767–1848)| | Louisa Catherine Adams (née Johnson)
(1775–1852)| | Charles Adams
(1770–1800)| | Thomas Boylston Adams
(1772–1832)
| |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | George Washington Adams
(1801–1829)| | John Adams II
(1803–1834)| | Charles Francis Adams Sr.
(1807–1886)| | Abigail Brown Adams (née Brooks)
(1808–1889)|

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Frances Cadwalader Crowninshield
(1839–1911)| | John Quincy Adams II
(1833–1894)| | Charles Francis Adams Jr.
(1835–1915)| | Henry Brooks Adams
(1838–1918)| | Marian Hooper Adams
(1843–1885)| | Peter Chardon Brooks Adams
(1848–1927)| |
| |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| George Casper Adams
(1863–1900)| | Charles Francis Adams III
(1866–1954)| | Frances Adams (née Lovering)
(1869–1956)| | John Adams
(1875–1964)| |

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | |
| Henry Sturgis Morgan
(1900–1982)| | Catherine Lovering Adams Morgan
(1902–1988)| | Charles Francis Adams IV
(1910–1999)| | Thomas Boylston Adams
(1910–1997)| |

## Works[edit]

* The Emancipation of Massachusetts: The Dream and the Reality, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919 [1st Pub. 1887].
* The Gold Standard: An Historical Study, Alfred Mudge & Son, 1894.
* The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History, The Macmillan Company, 1895.
* America's Economic Supremacy, The Macmillan Co., 1900.
* The New Empire, The Macmillan Company, 1902.
* Railways as Public Agents: A Study in Sovereignty, Boston, 1910.
* Theory of Social Revolutions, The Macmillan Company, 1913.

### Essays[edit]

* "The Spanish War and the Equilibrium of the World," The Forum 25 (6), August 1898.
* "The New Struggle for Life Among Nations," McClure's Magazine 12 (6), April 1899.
* "England's Decadence in the West Indies," The Forum, June 1899.
* "War and Economic Competition," Scribner's 31 (3), March 1902.
* "John Hay," McClure's Magazine 19 (2), June 1902.
* "Legal Supervision of the Transportation Tax," The North American Review, September 1904.
* "Nature of Law: Methods and Aim of Legal Education." In: Centralization and the Law: Scientific Legal Education. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1906.
* "Law Under Inequality: Monopoly." In: Centralization and the Law: Scientific Legal Education. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1906.
* "A Problem in Civilization," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CVI, 1910.
* "The Collapse of Capitalistic Government," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CXI, 1913.

### Other[edit]

* Henry Adams, The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, with an introduction by Brooks Adams. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1919.

## References[edit]

1. ^ "The new international encyclopaedia". Retrieved 2012-11-27.
2. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Adams, Brooks". The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1\. Boston: American Biographical Society. pp. 35–36. Retrieved October 22, 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. ^ Neilson, Francis (July 1945). "The Decline of Civilizations". The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 4 (4): 479. doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.1945.tb01467.x.
4. ^ Kuokkanen, Petri (17 May 2003). "Prophets of Decline: The Global Histories of Brooks Adams, Oswald Spengler, and Arnold Toynbee in the United States, 1896–1961" (PDF). University of Tampere, Department of History. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)
5. ^ Ludovici, Anthony (1944). "The Law of Civilization and Decay," The New English Weekly 25, pp. 177–178.
6. ^ Adams, Brooks (1896). The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 298.
7. ^ Adams, Brooks (1900). America's Economic Supremacy. Macmillan Publishers. pp. 23–24. ISBN 9781404725706.
8. ^ Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.
9. ^ "Wilhelmina Harris, 95; Directed Historic Site". The New York Times. 1991-05-29. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
10. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 1 April 2011.

## Bibliography[edit]

* American National Biography, vol. 1, pp. 70–71.
* World Book Encyclopedia 1988.
* "Adams, Brooks," The New International Encyclopædia. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1905.
* "Adams, Charles Francis," Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1900.
* "Adams, Brooks" in The Encyclopedia Americana. New York, 1920.
* "Adams, Brooks," Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P.F. Collier & Son Co., 1921.

## Further reading[edit]

### Books and book chapters[edit]

* Anderson, Thornton. Brooks Adams, Constructive Conservative, Cornell University Press, 1951.
* Beringause, Arthur F. Brooks Adams: A Biography, Knopf, 1955.
* Brands, H. W. "Brooks Adams: Marx for Imperialists," in The Struggle for the Soul of Foreign Policy, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
* Donovan, Timothy Paul. Henry Adams and Brooks Adams; the Education of Two American Historians, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

### Academic journals[edit]

* Aaron, Daniel. The Unusable Man: An Essay on the Mind of Brooks Adams, The New England Quarterly 21 (1), March 1948.
* Barnes, Harry Elmer. Brooks Adams on World Utopia, Current History, University of California Press, 1944.
* Beisner, Robert L. "Brooks Adams and Charles Francis Adams, Jr.: Historians of Massachusetts," The New England Quarterly 35 (1), March 1962.
* Carson, Mina J. The Evolution of Brooks Adams, Biography, University of Hawaii Press, 1983.
* Harris, Wilhelmina S. The Brooks Adams I Knew, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 80, 1968.
* Hirschfield, Charles. Brooks Adams and American Nationalism, American Historical Review, Oxford University Press, 1964.
* Madison, Charles A. "Brooks Adams: Jeremian Critic of Capitalism," The Antioch Review 4 (3), Autumn, 1944.
* Mallan, John P. "Roosevelt, Brooks Adams, and Lea: The Warrior Critique of the Business Civilization," American Quarterly 8 (3), Autumn 1956.
* Marotta, Gary. "The Economics of American Empire: The View of Brooks Adams and Charles Arthur Conant," The American Economist 19 (2), Fall 1975.
* Nagel, Paul C. "Brooks Adams after Half a Century," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 90, 1978.
* Tonsor, Stephen. "Adams, Brooks," First Principles, June 2012.
* Williams, William A., Brooks Adams and American Expansion, The New England Quarterly, 25 (2), 1952.

### Academic theses[edit]

* Whiting, John. The Economics of Human Energy in Brooks Adams, Ezra Pound, and Robert Theobald, 1971.

## External links[edit]

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Brooks Adams

Wikiquote has quotations related to Brooks Adams.

* Works by Brooks Adams at Project Gutenberg
* Works by or about Brooks Adams at Internet Archive
* Works by Brooks Adams at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
* The Adams Memorial: Brooks Adams (1848–1927).
* Guide to Brooks Adams papers at Houghton Library, Harvard University.
* Guide to Correspondence of Brooks Adams with American novelist Henry Adams at Houghton Library, Harvard University.
* Encyclopædia Britannica: Brooks Adams
* Unitarian Universalist Historical Society: Peter Charadon Brooks Adams
* Brooks Adams (1848–1927): Biographical Essay
* Brooks Adams at Find a Grave

* v
* t
* e

John Quincy Adams

* U.S. Representative for MA–8 (1843–1848)
* U.S. Representative for MA–12 (1833–1843)
* U.S. Representative for MA–11 (1831–1833)
* 6th President of the United States (1825–1829)
* 8th United States Secretary of State (1817–1825)
* U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom (1814–1817)
* U.S. Minister to Russia (1809–1814)
* U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1803–1808)
* U.S. Minister to Prussia (1797–1801)
* U.S. Minister to the Netherlands (1794–1797)

Presidency|

* Inauguration
* American System
* Internal improvements
* Tariff of 1828
* First Treaty of Prairie du Chien
* Treaty of Fond du Lac
* Treaty of Limits
* United States Naval Observatory
* State of the Union Address, 1825
* 1827
* 1828
* Federal judiciary appointments

Other
events|

* Monroe Doctrine, author
* Treaty of Ghent
* Adams–Onís Treaty
* Treaty of 1818
* Tariff of 1832
* Smithsonian Institution
* United States v. The Amistad
* Mendi Bible
* President, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* President, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences

Writings|

* Lifelong diary
* Massachusetts Historical Society holdings
* Adams Papers Editorial Project

Life and
homes|

* Early life
* Abigail Adams Cairn
* John Quincy Adams and abolitionism
* Adams National Historical Park
* Birthplace and family home
* Peacefield
* Stone Library
* United First Parish Church and gravesite

Electoral history|

* Senate
* 1803
* 1808
* Presidential runs
* 1824
* Corrupt Bargain
* 1828

Legacy|

* Bibliography
* Adams Memorial
* Adams House at Harvard University
* U.S. Postage stamps
* Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar
* Mount Quincy Adams
* USS President Adams (1941)
* USS John Adams (1963)

Popular
culture|

* Profiles in Courage (1957 book)
* 1965 television series)
* The Adams Chronicles (1976 miniseries)
* Mutiny on the Amistad (1987 book)
* Amistad (1997 film)
* John Adams (2001 book
* 2008 miniseries)

Adams family
Quincy family|

* Louisa Adams (wife)
* George W. Adams (son)
* Charles Adams Sr. (son)
* John Adams II (son)
* Henry Adams (grandson)
* Brooks Adams (grandson)
* John Quincy Adams II (grandson)
* John Adams
* father
* presidency
* Abigail Adams
* mother
* First Lady
* Quincy family
* Abigail Adams Smith (sister)
* Charles Adams (brother)
* Thomas Boylston Adams (brother)
* John Adams Sr. (paternal grandfather)
* Susanna Boylston (paternal grandmother)
* Elihu Adams (paternal uncle)
* John Quincy (great-grandfather)

Related|

* National Republican Party
* Republicanism
* Quincy Patriot

* ← James Monroe
* Andrew Jackson →

* Category

* v
* t
* e

John Adams

* 2nd President of the United States (1797–1801)
* 1st Vice President of the United States (1789–1797)
* U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom (1785–1788)
* U.S. Minister to the Netherlands (1782–1788)
* Delegate to the Second Continental Congress (1775–1778)
* Delegate to the First Continental Congress (1774)

Founding of the
United States|

* Braintree Instructions (1765)
* Boston Massacre defense
* Continental Association
* Petition to the King
* United Colonies
* Thoughts on Government (1776)
* Lee Resolution (seconded)
* Declaration of Independence
* May 15 preamble
* Committee of Five
* Model Treaty
* Treaty of Amity and Commerce
* Treaty of Alliance
* Board of War
* Chairman of the Marine Committee, 1775-1779
* Continental Navy
* Staten Island Peace Conference
* Conference House
* Constitution of Massachusetts (1780)
* Treaty of Paris, 1783
* Diplomacy

Elections|

* United States presidential election 1788–1789
* 1792
* 1796
* 1800

Presidency|

* Inauguration
* Quasi War with France
* XYZ Affair
* Commerce Protection Act
* United States Marine Corps
* Convention of 1800
* Alien and Sedition Acts
* Naturalization Act of 1798
* Navy Department Library
* Treaty of Tellico
* Treaty of Tripoli
* Midnight Judges Act
* Marbury v. Madison
* State of the Union Address (1797
* 1798
* 1799
* 1800)
* Cabinet
* Federal judiciary appointments

Other writings|

* Massachusetts Historical Society holdings
* Adams Papers Editorial Project
* A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
* Founders Online
* Gray v. Pitts

Life and
homes|

* Early life and education
* Adams National Historical Park
* John Adams Birthplace
* Family home and John Quincy Adams birthplace
* Peacefield
* Stone Library
* Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University
* Presidents House, Philadelphia
* Co-founder and second president, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* United First Parish Church and gravesite

Legacy|

* Bibliography
* List of memorials
* Adams Memorial (proposed)
* John Adams Building
* Jefferson Memorial pediment
* U.S. Postage stamps
* Treaty of Paris (1783 painting)
* USS Adams (1799)
* USS John Adams (1799)
* USS Adams (1874)
* USS President Adams (1941)
* USS John Adams (1963)
* Adams House at Harvard University
* Mount Adams (New Hampshire, Washington)
* Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Popular culture|

* Profiles in Courage (1964 series)
* American Primitive (1969 play)
* 1776 (1969 musical
* 1972 film)
* The Adams Chronicles (1976 miniseries)
* Liberty! (1997 documentary series)
* Liberty's Kids (2002 animated series)
* John Adams (2001 book
* 2008 miniseries)
* John and Abigail Adams (2006 documentary film)
* Sons of Liberty (2015 miniseries)
* Franklin (upcoming miniseries)

Related|

* "Adams and Liberty" campaign song
* Adams' personal library
* American Enlightenment
* Congress Hall
* Federalist Party
* Federalist Era
* First Party System
* republicanism
* American Philosophical Society
* Gazette of the United States
* The American Museum
* Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams
* American Revolution
* patriots
* Founding Fathers

Adams family|

* Abigail Adams
* wife
* Quincy family
* Abigail Adams Smith (daughter)
* John Quincy Adams
* son
* presidency
* Charles Adams (son)
* Thomas Boylston Adams (son)
* George W. Adams (grandson)
* Charles Adams Sr. (grandson)
* John Adams II (grandson)
* John Q. Adams (great-grandson)
* Henry Adams (great-grandson)
* Brooks Adams (great-grandson)
* John Adams Sr. (father)
* Susanna Boylston (mother)
* Elihu Adams (brother)
* Samuel Adams (second cousin)
* Louisa Adams
* daughter-in-law
* first lady

* ← George Washington
* Thomas Jefferson →

* Thomas Jefferson →

* Category

Authority control

International|

* FAST
* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Spain
* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* Israel
* Belgium
* United States
* Czech Republic
* Netherlands
* Poland
* Vatican

Artists|

* ULAN

Other|

* SNAC
* IdRef

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template