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 ...
Witness -- Whittaker Chambers
Well i’ll be dipped. You are rather cultured after all.
The Constitution
MiG Pilot by Viktor Belenko.
The Wizard of Oz (book)
P.J. O’Rourke
I would expect many tourists would like to learn a little history to give context to what they see.
I agree - Democracy in America was the first book that came to my mind. Although I think demographic changes have made it a little less relevant, it should be a good introduction to American society for another 20-30 years - until the demographics overtake the culture.
The answer to the question would have to depend on what the visitor already knows - and especially, what he knows that just isn’t so.My experience of a French family visiting was that they were interested in Native Americans. And also that they were very interested in American food markets.
Also, that the difference in geographical scale between the US as a whole and that of France (which is only about eight-tenths the area of Texas) was disorienting to them even tho they thought they knew it. That difference in scale is reflected in the US attitude towards the price of fuel - since we think nothing of traveling distances which would take a European out of his country, high gasoline prices are a big deal to us. And we buy cars with an eye to taking the family on a long (to a European, very long) trip.
For the second I would suggest R. Kirk’s Root’s of American Order.
Detailed maps of crime rates in US cities.
Holy cow. Are you kidding? The hot babe in the orange dress with the long blonde hair. Doesn’t look like any first-time visitor to the U.S. I’ve seen recently.
FreeRepublic..duh.
The problem is that a visitor can read all of the great works and documents he/she wants but they are all now a work of fiction and most Americans don’t read and don’t care. It’s not even taught. America has given up on America as The United States of America is in name only. I would visit America and call it a dump. I lived in Philadelphia and it is a disgrace. Take the typical tours of Philly, Boston and other historically significant cities and there is a major disconnect from our glorious history and who we are now. Most people visiting will never get to the heart of who we are. I think this country is in a war of what we should be as we go forward.
I have known of Europeans visiting New York who thought they would take two days and make a side trip to see Texas.
They really cannot comprehend the size.
The Southern Democrats in 1860, just like in 2000 and again in 2016, refused to accept the results of the election. No more, no less. They were just a whole lot dumber about how they went about it.
“Mark Twain! All of him.
Excellent for furriners to get an insight.”
Good choice.
Also, “Conscience of a Conservative” by Barry Goldwater, any of Washington Irving, Eliot Arnold’s “Blood Brother”, or hell the Free Republic!
Will Rogers
I second Democracy in America, de Tocqueville.
Innocents Abroad- Mark Twain
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