Brooks Adams and American Expansion

Abstract

TONG slighted as a somewhat eccentric brother of the more l famous Henry Adams, Brooks Adams has received less attention than he deserves. Brooks Adams not only influenced Henry Adams; he also made a signficant impression on such leading public figures as John Hay, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt. Of particular consequence was Brooks's role in the development of United States foreign policy in Asia -and toward Russia in particular-from 1895 to 1908. Panic of 1893 brought Henry Adams into close and extended contact with his brother for the first time in several years. Henry, perplexed by the problems posed by the new industrialism, was quick to benefit from Brooks's researches and insight. By 1893 Brooks Adams had completed some ten years of exhaustive inquiry upon which he had formulated a broad theory of history. And as the two brothers waited out their fortunes that summer Brooks gave Henry the full argument of his thesis, which was shortly published as Law of Civilization and Decay.l In the course of this tutoring it is clear that Henry acquired from Brooks certain fundamental conceptions of history, explicit in Law, which subsequently bulked large in his own writing.2 By Henry's own admission it was Brooks who discovered or developed the law: The book, Henry wrote,