As the Grandson of President John Quincy Adams and the Great Grandson of President John Adams, Henry Brooks Adams saw himself as a failure by comparison to the lofty accomplishments of his ancestors. This inferiority complex is quite visible in "The Education of Henry Adams", the autobiography of the author and an important document of 19th century American history and political life. Adams, a historian, journalist, and novelist shows in this great work of literature his accomplishments as a writer, proving that he was anything but a failure.