Masterpiece: "The Education of Henry Adams"

A foundational text for every American Studies program, and one of the most original books published by an American author, “The Education of Henry Adams (An Autobiography)” ought to be read by educated citizens twice. First for its insight into contemporary history and then for what it reveals about the nature of education. Written in 1905, privately printed the next year, and published in 1918, its importance lies in its innovative form and prophetic content. A work startlingly idiosyncratic and unprecedented in the genre, its only forebear was Benjamin Franklin’s “Autobiography” (1793), which Adams called a “model of self-teaching.”