Lately I would have to say this:
Posted on 04/08/2018 3:39:59 PM PDT by iowamark
A friend recently posed this question: “If you had to recommend one book for a first-time visitor to the U.S. to read, to understand our country, what would it be and why?”...
If the goal is an education, we could recommend Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager’s Growth of the American Republic, a two-volume history that used to be required reading...
Huckleberry Finn may be the greatest American novel... But there is no single novel, no matter how great, that can do the job alone.
Consider instead the great American essayists who invented a new style of writing in the 1920s and founded The New Yorker. E. B. White’s One Man’s Meat is the finest such essay collection... Joseph Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel is nearly as great...
Teddy Roosevelt’s short book The Strenuous Life, which opens with his 1899 speech by that name, is an explanation of America’s view of itself — a view that greatly shaped the 20th century. It was the peculiar marriage of power and prosperity together with a sense of moral urgency. Roosevelt demands an active life, a life of struggling for personal and national virtue. He commends a triad of strength in body, intellect, and character — of which character is the most important. America must meet its moral obligations vigorously, he tells us: “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”...
The origin of that moral urgency was America’s most important spiritual crisis. It is best expressed in a single speech, rich in Biblical imagery and contemporary prophecy: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, which is the greatest of all American writing. It is a tone-poem or photograph of the American soul. A complete understanding, in just 697 words.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Very subjective here depending on your intent, but as for me, a few items are noteworthy. The Declaration of Independence, George’s Washington’s farewell address, Frederic Bastiat’s The Law, and this: Idols for Destruction: The Conflict of Christian Faith and American Culture
by Herbert Schlossberg, Charles W. Colson (Foreword by), Robert H. Bork (Preface by). Just a thought.
If the person is just visiting, I doubt they’re looking to learn the history of American culture, government, or literary trove.
I’d give ‘em a sight-seeing guide and tell ‘em to never walk alone at night.
The Law, by Fredric Bastiat
Bookmark
Comic strip Popeye. Cartoon bugs bunny and road runner. Dukes of Hazzard
Good point, but the question was:“If you had to recommend one book for a first-time visitor to the U.S. to read, to understand our country, what would it be and why?” I know many people who read and walk at the same time.
A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to America’s Age of Entitlement,
The constitution.
CC
A vain task. How about, My Name is Aram by William Saroyan.
Okay, you’re right. But any such comprehensive tome would have to be so compressed, it would be like trying to sip a drink of water from a fire hydrant. Pity the visitor.
Nice touch, got a good chuckle out of me.
River Horse, by William Least Heat-Moon. A one year adventure from New Jersey to Astoria Oregon via 22 foot boat. Heat-Moon describes the history and current conditions along the important American rivers as he travels up the Hudson, across the Erie Canal, down the shore of Lake Erie, a short portage to the upper reaches of the Ohio, into the Mississippi/Missouri basins and on up and over the Rockies and down the Columbia. Probably less than 200 miles all told that he did not float on the 22 footer or a canoe he had along.
This book gives a great account of important times in America and would give even a first time visitor a feel for this wonderful place we call home.
Mark Twain! All of him.
Excellent for furriners to get an insight.
Lately I would have to say this:
Tom Wolfe: A Man in Full
Good choice.
Also a good choice.
How about some Horatio Alger?
Is this before or after he realizes how screwed up things are.
“The Great Republic”, by Winston Churchill.
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