The inertia of sex: Henry Adams on family and the politics of unconditional love.

This article offers a reassessment of the contemporary relevance of the political thought of Henry Adams through a focus on his ideas about the relationship between family and politics. Adams' ideas have been dismissed by contemporary thinkers, like Richard Rorty, who rely on similar ideas about the role family should play in politics. The article traces the role of ideas about family as a unifying theme in Adams' history, fiction, and autobiography. It shows both why Adams believed familial sentiments, especially feminine and motherly love, were crucial to political unity, and why he thought these sentiments had become increasingly difficult to rely upon. In showing how Adams wrestled with the difficulties that emerge in putting familial sentiments to use for politics, the article suggests that Adams' ideas offer useful lessons for contemporary thinkers interested in the relationship between family and politics.