The organizing thread of the book is how the "proper" schooling and other aspects of his youth was time wasted, thus, his search for self-education through experiences, friendships, and reading.

An important theme of The Education is its author's bewilderment and concern at the rapid advance in science and technology over the course of his lifetime, sometimes now called Second Industrial Revolution, but incarnated in his term "dynamo".

The Education mentions the recent discovery of X-rays and radioactivity, and shows a familiarity with radio waves in his citation of Marconi and Branly.

Adams purchased an automobile as early as 1902, to make better use of a summer in France researching Mont Saint Michel and Chartres.

Adams had direct knowledge of many notable events and persons of the 1850–1900 period, and much of the text is devoted to giving his views on them.

[2] In his novel, V., Thomas Pynchon likens his protagonist Herbert Stencil to Henry Adams in the Education as they both refer to themselves in the third person.

The lyrics of "Long Folk Revival" by Thirsty Curses include a line "...it's The New Education of Henry Adams".