The autobiography of Henry Adams is comprised of two fundamental parts: an eye-opening history of the United States as it ascended to industrial and technological greatness, and a critique of education in the 19th century. Born into an influential family and directly descended from two Presidents of the United States, Adams lived in and chronicled events in the United States for most of his life. Cognitively buoyed by an excellent education at Harvard University, and given perspective on the wider world during a great tour of Europe he undertook shortly after graduating from college, Henry Adams became a distinguished and able chronicler of the past. However, Adams was taken aback at the sheer pace of change which characterized the development of the USA throughout his lifetime. Whereas the books he had studied indicated that nations steadily developed over centuries, the USA achieved such enormous progress in a matter of decades.