Adam is the author of several books. His first book, Statistics and the German State: the Making of Modern Economic Knowledge appeared in 2001, Wages of Destruction: the Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy was published in 2006, Deluge: The Great War and the Remaking of the Global Order 1916-1931 in 2014 and Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy in 2021. For these books Adam won the Leverhulme prize fellowship, the H-Soz-Kult Historisches Buch Prize, the Longman History Today Prize, the Wolfson Prize and the LA Times History Prize. He was shortlisted for the Kirkus review, Duff Cooper and Hessel Tiltman prize and his books have featured in the book of the year lists of the Financial Times, LA Times, Kirkus Review, Foreign Affairs and The Economist. Adam’s books have been translated into eleven languages.
Adam has appeared on PBS Television, BBC Radio, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the History Channel, Swiss and French television. He has written and reviewed for numerous publication including the Financial Times, The Guardian, the New York Times, Die Zeit, Spiegel, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.