"The United States is the world's best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations.you will destroy her powerful good, and endanger her very existence." - Henry Cabot Lodge (1919)This autobiography of Henry Cabot Lodge, the American politician and author, was published during his fourth term in the Senate. It covers, as the title indicates, his pre-political years - everything from his first memories and boyhood, experience of the Civil War, years spent in Europe, career at Harvard, and editorship of the North American Review.HENRY CABOT LODGE (1850- 1924) was born in Boston and was the first student to graduate with a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives from 1887 to 1893 and served in the Senate for 31 years, from 1893 until his death. Lodge led the conservative wing of the Republican Party and is best known for his opposition to the Versailles Peace Treaty and the League of Nations. He was also the author of many historical and political works, including the biographies of Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Webster, and George Washington.