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The Last American Aristocrat
- The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 14 hrs
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Publisher's summary
A “marvelous … compelling” (The New York Times Book Review) biography of literary icon Henry Adams - one of America’s most prominent writers and intellectuals, who witnessed and contributed to the United States’ dramatic transition from a colonial society to a modern nation.
Henry Adams is perhaps the most eclectic, accomplished, and important American writer of his time. His autobiography and modern classic The Education of Henry Adams was widely considered one of the best English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century. The last member of his distinguished family - after great-grandfather John Adams and grandfather John Quincy Adams - to gain national attention, he is remembered today as a historian, a political commentator, and a memoirist.
Now, historian David Brown sheds light on the brilliant yet under-celebrated life of this major American intellectual. Adams not only lived through the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution, but he also met Abraham Lincoln, bowed before Queen Victoria, and counted Secretary of State John Hay, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and President Theodore Roosevelt as friends and neighbors. His observations of these powerful men and their policies in his private letters provide a penetrating assessment of Gilded Age America on the cusp of the modern era.
“Thoroughly researched and gracefully written” (The Wall Street Journal), The Last American Aristocrat details Adams’ relationships with his wife (Marian “Clover” Hooper) and, following her suicide, Elizabeth Cameron, the young wife of a senator and part of the famous Sherman clan from Ohio. Henry Adams’ letters - thousands of them - demonstrate his struggles with depression, familial expectations, and reconciling with his unwanted widower’s existence.
Offering a fresh window on 19th-century US history, as well as a more “modern” and “human” Henry Adams than ever before, The Last American Aristocrat is a “standout portrait of the man and his era” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
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Critic reviews
"Jacques Roy’s narration is beautifully paced, unhurried and deftly altered to distinguish narrative from quotation." (The Star Tribune)
"Jacques Roy's fine narration of Brown's excellent biography of historian Henry Adams is commendable on every scale, a model of pacing, expression, and tone." (AudioFile)
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Union tells the story of the struggle to create a national myth for the United States, one that could hold its rival regional cultures together and forge an American nationhood.
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Required Reading
- By Ben Brafford on 08-30-20
By: Colin Woodard
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Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
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A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
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John Quincy Adams
- American Visionary
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 27 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams - the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams - and persuasively demonstrates how Adams's inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.
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Destined by birth, mentored by greats...
- By Jonathan Love on 03-04-16
By: Fred Kaplan
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Heaven on Earth
- The Rise, Fall, and Afterlife of Socialism
- By: Joshua Muravchik
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Socialism was man's most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a doctrine claiming to ground itself in "science". Each failure to create societies of abundance or give birth to "the New Man" inspired more searching for the path to the promised land: revolution, communes, social democracy, communism, fascism, Arab socialism, African socialism. None worked, and some exacted a staggering human toll. Then, after two centuries of wishful thinking and bitter disappointment, socialism imploded in a fin de siecle drama of falling walls and collapsing regimes.
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A biased yet informative masterpiece
- By CodyPeacock12349 on 04-04-21
By: Joshua Muravchik
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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Churchill's Shadow
- The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill
- By: Geoffrey Wheatcroft
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 23 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Winston Churchill is generally considered one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, revered for his opposition to appeasement, his defiance in the face of German bombing of England, his political prowess, and his memorable speeches. He became the savior of his country, as prime minister during the most perilous period in British history, World War II, and is now perhaps even more beloved in America than in England. This revelatory book takes on Churchill in his entirety, separating the man from the myth that he so carefully cultivated.
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A few facts and a quote in context, would be nice.
- By Arlene on 01-30-22
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Lincoln in Private
- What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President
- By: Ronald C. White
- Narrated by: Ronald C. White
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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A deeply private man, shut off even to those who worked closely with him, Abraham Lincoln often captured “his best thoughts", as he called them, in short notes to himself. He would work out his personal stances on the biggest issues of the day, never expecting anyone to see these pieces of writing, which he’d then keep close at hand, in desk drawers and even in his top hat. The profound importance of these notes has been overlooked, because the originals are scattered across several different archives and have never before been brought together and examined as a coherent whole.
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A Good One--Highly Recommend
- By Jeffy on 04-18-23
By: Ronald C. White
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Passionate Sage
- The Character and Legacy of John Adams
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers of our nation and its second president, spent nearly the last third of his life in retirement, grappling with contradictory views of his place in history and fearing his reputation would not fare well in the generations after his death. And indeed, future generations did slight him, elevating Jefferson and Madison to lofty heights while Adams remained way back in the second tier.
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Stays true to Audible's description
- By Neil on 10-24-09
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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Weimar Culture
- The Outsider as Insider
- By: Peter Gay
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1968, Weimar Culture is one of the masterworks of Peter Gay's distinguished career. A study of German culture between the two wars, the book brilliantly traces the rise of the artistic, literary, and musical culture that bloomed ever so briefly in the 1920s amid the chaos of Germany's tenuous post-World War I democracy, and crashed violently in the wake of Hitler's rise to power.
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Engaging book, terrible narrator
- By Beth Simone Noveck on 05-08-21
By: Peter Gay
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JFK
- Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956
- By: Fredrik Logevall
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 29 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston’s wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in American history.
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Excellent Portrait of JFK & His Times
- By John David on 12-14-20
By: Fredrik Logevall
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Washington's End
- The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle
- By: Jonathan Horn
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Washington’s End begins where most biographies of George Washington leave off, with the first president exiting office after eight years and entering what would become the most bewildering stage of his life. Embittered by partisan criticism and eager to return to his farm, Washington assumed a role for which there was no precedent at a time when the kings across the ocean yielded their crowns only upon losing their heads. In a different sense, Washington would lose his head, too.
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INTRIGUING SNAPSHOT
- By JPALJ on 02-23-20
By: Jonathan Horn
What listeners say about The Last American Aristocrat
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Doyle
- 12-20-22
Intriguing! The man was a genius and the narrator paused enough to make the story believable ! The author gave a sophisticated t
Henry Adams was a bright and interesting character. The author gave an excellent summary of the transition of the 19th century to the 20th.
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- D. Littman
- 02-19-21
outstanding book, highly recommend it
This is a great book, well-deserving the accolates/awards it has already received. Brown brings Henry Adams real life to the surface in a way never done before, and certainly not done by Adams' own "Education" or 1918 (still a wonderful book itself). Brown is also able to put Adams into his context & related, to some degree, the history of the post Civil War period, up to WW1. Adams comes off as both attractive/interesting/open-minded and narrow-minded/rigid/snob. That is, as a real person. He would have been someone wonderful to meet & talk to at length. His virulent anti-semiitism (& sometime racism & sometime xenophobia aside). Brown does provide useful material on these less appealing subjects without letting those overwhelm the entire story. The narration is excellent.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Henry G. Nadeau
- 01-05-21
An academic slog, and yet.....
.....it was a peek into a life very different than mine but with commonality through shared emotions and travels. Interesting look into the lives of other characters in American D.C. political life post civil war. Also, convinced he was the last American aristocrat (male of female). However, when it was done, I certainly didn't find it a waste of time and would encourage certain friends to read it
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jean
- 07-21-21
Narrator spoils it
The book was interesting, but the narrator's habit of a crescendo at the end of every sentence spoiled it.
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- Charles
- 08-10-22
He saw the Civil War and World War I
He had an interesting life finding work that was different for his upper class lifestyle. He was able to avoid becoming a lawyer. I found it amazing that he did not have a lover after his wife died. His exotic trips
to Fiji would test a priest
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- Matthew Stein
- 12-03-20
Riddle resolved
How should a biographer biograph a biographer? This imponderable is convincingly resolved. One should do it like this.
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3 people found this helpful