The Education of Henry Adams

Published posthumously in 1918, this book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1919. In this autobiography, Adams confronts the way he was raised, asserting that he and other men of his generation were singularly unprepared for the chaos unleashed upon civilization by the economic and technical innovations as the end of the 19th century drew near. More than any other work of Adams's, his Education has made his reputation as a probing intellect striving to make sense of the world around him.