Home › Books › Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirtee…
Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Books
by
7/99
Critics' Rating Index
30/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
89/99
Volume of Reviews
24/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
What does it take to be a good American? And who gets to decide? Journalist Jess McHugh examines thirteen seemingly innocuous, mega-bestselling reference books, guidebooks, and self-help books that have become blueprints for core American values and shaped our national story. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The Old Farmer's Almanac, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book: These are a few examples of American "bibles." They are reference books for daily life that ostensibly taught readers one subject, all while instructing them about their role in society and their responsibilities to family and to country. These are dictionaries, school primers, cookbooks, and how-to guides, spanning the full range of our 245-year history, which sold tens of millions of copies and set out specific archetypes for the ideal American, from the self-made entrepreneur to the devoted homemaker to the humble farmer. Taken together, these books help us understand how a powerful minority successfully constructed meaning for the majority in times of change or upheaval. Americanon looks at how these ubiquitous texts have molded common language, culture, and customs—attempting to impose a single definition of American on a diverse nation. Deeply researched and gorgeously told, Americanon is a brilliant and curious history of American mythmaking. Jess McHugh brings alive a cast of core American figures—Benjamin Franklin, Dale Carnegie, Emily Post, and more—to demystify the origins of the great American fable.
Reviews
"McHugh's conclusions can be too pat, and her analysis occasionally lacks rigor ..."
"A worthy, capably told look at a small canon of works demonstrating how to do well by doing good."
"General readers and history devotees might enjoy this compilation and its use of corporate archival and secondary sources; they might also have additions to suggest ..."
"McHugh tries to argue throughout the book that each of the works she examines tended to reinforce the same process of cultural homogenization."
"Without overdoing it, McHugh clearly delineates how good Americans are — or at least American authors are — at giving advice they don't follow."
"A basic principle of writing is that the more you know about a subject, the stronger your prose."
"Within a world in which success was defined mainly in terms of what white male Protestants had achieved, and manners and mores mainly in terms of how middle-class heterosexuals behaved, these books can be read as telling their millions of readers, This is normal."
"Brisk publication histories and author profiles enrich the cultural analysis, which is consistently on-point."
"Some of the most astute observations in this penetrating history are about how these books' creators did not always live by the same rules they imposed upon their rank-and-file readers."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!