Tropological Analysis of a Classical Text: The Education of Henry Adams

Abstract

Continuing the discussion of the American historiographical classic initiated by Hayden White, the tropological analysis explores the constitution of American identity in Henry Adams' text. The concept „Washington" serves as text-structuring paradigm. The tropological vicissitudes of „Washington" reveal central areas of problematization, such as national (dis)unity in the context of the Civil War, or the (un)governability of a modern nation driven by the forces of energy (,,Chicago") and capital (,,New York").