Booknotes on American Character
by Brian Lamb
Published by Public Affairs
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Reviewed by Connie Anderson
I love a good interviewer; one who asks good questions and then listens to their guest's answer. Brian Lamb, host of C-SPAN's Booknotes is all that and more.
This Booknotes selection is subtitled "On American Character" -- which I misread as American characterS. The book begins with intros from Ann Coulter (on the right) and Michael Moore (on the left). See why I read it as "characters"? With 24/7/365 all news, all the time, we've become a nation of characters -- and sometimes it seems as if character itself is lacking.
Lamb has assembled 78 contemporary essays about people, places and things -- from stories about race and culture to war to politics to Mount Rushmore as well as the Coors, Goodyear and Carnegie families (for example).
The sections are:
- The Nation's Leaders
- Social Movement & Political Vision
- America at War
- American Inventors and Businessmen
- Our Cultural Heritage
When people today say, "We've never been more divided" (as witnessed by the closeness of our last election), his selected essays show that America has a long history of highly partisan politics, often bitter, sometimes even violent.
My favorite of the 78 essays was: "Philo T. Farnsworth: The Inventor of Television." TV came into my home when I was a young teen, and I remember the excitement as if it was yesterday. My dad reveled in being one of the first to have one. I learned a lot of interesting things about the television, and how Farnsworth didn't get the credit he deserved.
Booknotes is a full course in diverse thinking, and a course well worth taking.
Armchair Interviews says: So much to read ... so little time. That's why these short essays will make you the smartest kid on the block. Read, enjoy, reflect -- and share what you learned from Booknotes.