The Modern Library's number-one nonfiction book of the twentieth century and winner of the Pulitzer Prize: The acclaimed memoir of a brilliant man reckoning with an era of profound change The great-grandson of President John Adams and the grandson of President John Quincy Adams, Henry Adams possessed one of the most remarkable minds of his generation. Yet he believed himself fundamentally unsuited to the era in which he lived - the tumultuous period between the Civil War and World War I. One of the finest autobiographies ever written, The Education of Henry Adams is a remarkable and uniquely unclassifiable work. Written in third person and originally circulated in a private edition to friends and family only, it recounts Adams's lifelong search for self-knowledge and moral enlightenment and bears witness to some of the most significant developments in American history.
"I cannot remember when I was not fascinated by Henry Adams. He was remarkably prescient about the coming horrors."
Gore Vidal
"The pleasure of reading the Education is... the pleasure of seeing history come alive, of seeing it move, of seeing behind history to the actions and actors. It is the pleasure of seeing revealed the humanity so often concealed in history."
