author
Henry Adams
1838–1918
Born into one of America’s most famous political families, he became a sharp-eyed historian and literary critic instead of a public officeholder. He is best remembered for writing The Education of Henry Adams, a memoir that turned personal reflection into a vivid portrait of a changing nation.
14 Audiobooks
Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
by Henry Adams
History of the United States of America, Volume 1 (of 9) : During the first administration of Thomas Jefferson
by Henry Adams
History of the United States of America, Volume 4 (of 9) : During the second administration of Thomas Jefferson
by Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams
Democracy, an American novel
by Henry Adams
History of the United States of America, Volume 7 (of 9) : During the second administration of James Madison
by Henry Adams
History of the United States of America, Volume 8 (of 9) : During the second administration of James Madison
by Henry Adams
History of the United States of America, Volume 5 (of 9) : During the first administration of James Madison
by Henry Adams
History of the United States of America, Volume 3 (of 9) : During the second administration of Thomas Jefferson
by Henry Adams
History of the United States of America, Volume 6 (of 9) : During the first administration of James Madison
by Henry Adams
Esther
by Henry Adams
The Life of Albert Gallatin
by Henry Adams
About the author
Born in Boston in 1838, he was the great-grandson of John Adams and the grandson of John Quincy Adams. After graduating from Harvard, he served as private secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams, during the Civil War years in London, then built a career as a journalist, historian, and observer of American public life.
He taught medieval history at Harvard and wrote major historical works, including a respected multivolume history of the Jefferson and Madison administrations. Readers today often know him best for The Education of Henry Adams, published near the end of his life, which blends autobiography, cultural criticism, and his uneasy fascination with the speed of modern change.
His writing is remembered for its intelligence, irony, and skepticism about progress. Rather than celebrating power from the inside, he often stood slightly apart from it, using history and memoir to ask how modern America had become what it was.