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.