A Letter to American Teachers of History.

ADAMS, Henry.

$750.00

Item Number: 131944

Washington, D.C.: Privately Printed at the Press of J. H. Furst Co. Baltimore, 1910.

First edition of Adams’ classic treatise on education. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by Henry Adams at the conclusion of the introduction. From the library of Charles H. Rammelkamp, Jr. with his ownership signature to the front free endpaper. Charles H. Rammelkamp, Jr. was an American scientist and physician. He discovered that streptococcus can cause rheumatic fever and nephritic syndrome, for which, he received the Lasker Award. He was a longtime professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. In near fine condition. Bookplate. A nice example with noted provenance.

"In 1910 Adams published and scattered widely a little volume which he called A Letter to American Teachers of History. Its style was designedly colloquial and its tone provocative. Assuming the validity of the second law of thermodynamics, that there is a universal tendency to the dissipation of mechanical energy, he pointed out the dilemma of teachers of history if they postulated a progressive evolution in human history towards some state of perfection, or tried to exempt mind from the operation of the law. What did they propose to do about it? Human thought should be considered as a substance passing from one phase to another, through a series of critical points which are determined by attraction, acceleration, and volume. - the equivalents of pressure, temperature, and volume in mechanical physics. In short, the future historian who would interpret the movement called history would have to seek his education in the world of mathematical physics" (DAB)