Hysteresis hinders the effective use of smart materials in sensors and actuators. This paper addresses recursive identification and adaptive inverse control of hysteresis in smart material actuators, where hysteresis is modeled by a Preisach operator with a piecewise uniform density function. Two classes of identification schemes are proposed and compared, one based on the hysteresis output, the other based on the time-difference of the output. Conditions for parameter convergence are presented in terms of the input to the Preisach operator. An adaptive inverse control scheme is developed by updating the Preisach operator (and thus its inverse) with the output-based identification method. The asymptotic tracking property of this scheme is established, and for periodic reference trajectories, the parameter convergence behavior is characterized. Practical issues in the implementation of the adaptive identification and inverse control methods are also investigated. Simulation and experimental results based on a magnetostrictive actuator are provided to illustrate the proposed approach.