Henry Adams and the Making of America - Annotated by Garry Wills (Paperback)

About the Book

Bestselling author Wills showcases Henry Adams little-known but seminal studyof the early United States, and draws from it fresh insights on the paradoxesthat roil America to this day.

Book Synopsis

In Henry Adams and the Making of America, Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills makes a compelling argument for a reassessment of Henry Adams as our nation's greatest historian and his History as the "nonfiction prose masterpiece of the nineteenth century in America." Adams drew on his own southern fixation, his extensive foreign travel, his political service in the Lincoln administration, and much more to invent the study of history as we know it. His nine-volume chronicle of America from 1800 to 1816 established new standards for employing archival sources, firsthand reportage, eyewitness accounts, and other techniques that have become the essence of modern history.

Ambitious in scope, nuanced in detail, Henry Adams and the Making of America throws brilliant light on the historian and the making of history.

Review Quotes

"With its revisionist stance, felicitous prose and compelling argument, Wills's book charts new directions." Publishers Weekly, Starred

"A contemporary historian pays tribute to a previous one in this personal and rigorous analysis of the works of Henry Adams. . .A marvelous character sketch." Booklist, ALA

"Garry Wills brings a lucid style, imaginative analysis and the talent for historical elucidation...I unreservedly recommend this book." --Richard Lingeman The New York Times Book Review --