The Education of Henry Adams, Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, Henry Adams
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The Education of Henry Adams
An Autobiography

Author: Henry Adams

Narrator: John McDonough

Unabridged: 21 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/08/2011

Synopsis

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography This autobiography was immediately hailed as a masterpiece upon publication and has even been called the greatest nonfiction book ever written. Henry Adams fills his life story with one unforgettably brilliant observation after another. Adams considered himself a failure by his own lofty standards. His great-grandfather and grandfather were both U.S. presidents, yet he viewed himself as no more than a “stable-companion to statesmen.” History has shown otherwise. Adams was a brilliant observer of the world and its politics. Here he tells not just his own story, but also the story of an America divided by civil war and grappling with the rapid growth of industry and technology. Filled with uncommon wisdom—“every friend in power is a friend lost”—this book is a thoughtful history of the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

About Henry Adams

Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918), American man of letters, was grandson and great-grandson of presidents of the United States. He taught history at Harvard, edited the North American Review, and published two novels. His ambitious History of the United States during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison appeared in nine volumes from 1889-91. His Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, an interpretation of the spiritual unity of the 13th century mind, led to his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, which describes the multiplicity of the 20th century mind.

Reviews

Goodreads review by William2 on April 12, 2023

Epistemological inquiry in the form of self-denigrating autobiography. Written in the third person, at times overbearingly acerbic. Author Henry Adams was grandson of President John Quincy Adams and great-grandson of President John Adams. He was a Boston Puritan born in 1838 who at sixteen attended......more

Goodreads review by Justin on April 03, 2012

One of the oddest books I've ever read, and am ever likely to read: an autobiography written in the third person, which tells us almost nothing at all about the author/central character, this seems more like a pre-modernist bildungsroman than anything else. The weirdness doesn't end there- Henry Ada......more

Goodreads review by Roy on November 05, 2016

Once more! this is a story of education, not of adventure! It is meant to help young men—or such as have intelligence enough to seek help—but it is not meant to amuse them. Everyone agrees that this book is difficult and odd. An autobiography of an American man of letters, the son of a diplomat,......more

Goodreads review by Mackenzie on January 28, 2009

there is no book like this anywhere else in American literature. It annoys, it fascinates, it bores, it amuses... a densely textured, thoughtful, at times exasperating story of growing up in the American 19th Century by the great-grandson of one president and the grandson of another -- who freely ad......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on September 27, 2007

Henry Adams was the original celebutante: famous for nothing other than being related to the two John Adams(es), he was in the unique position of having access to the upper crust of post-revolutionary America without having the burden of any kind of responsibility. This book is a guided tour of 19th-......more

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