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zozosbooks's review
3.0
I’ve somehow never read a Steinbeck but my grandpa has his whole collection so I picked something interesting and also short that I could read during my stay. This book is an interesting ethnography of sorts about American culture that is interesting to compare to 1966 when it was written, to today. Not a lot has changed (seems like we’ve always thought the world was going to shit and that the government isn’t very trustworthy) but he gets to his ideas about the roots of how we are the way we are.
He’s also totally a pessimist and thinks we’re all doomed and had very little nice things to say about the whole lot.
My favorite section was about “America and the land” maybe because I’m in Nebraska now and seeing the Oregon trail and reminders of what used to be here and the bison and wildlife before it was all so quickly devoured is an interesting comparison to what he talks about. Essentially that there are too many of us, and we take too much and have too much and get advertised to too much and that applies to the land we took too. Boy if he could see it now!
“The rules allow us to survive, to live together and to increase. If our will to survive this is weakened, if our love of life, and our memories of a gallant past, and faith in a shining future are removed-what need is there for morals or rules? Even they become a danger.”
He’s also totally a pessimist and thinks we’re all doomed and had very little nice things to say about the whole lot.
My favorite section was about “America and the land” maybe because I’m in Nebraska now and seeing the Oregon trail and reminders of what used to be here and the bison and wildlife before it was all so quickly devoured is an interesting comparison to what he talks about. Essentially that there are too many of us, and we take too much and have too much and get advertised to too much and that applies to the land we took too. Boy if he could see it now!
“The rules allow us to survive, to live together and to increase. If our will to survive this is weakened, if our love of life, and our memories of a gallant past, and faith in a shining future are removed-what need is there for morals or rules? Even they become a danger.”
kcrouth's review
4.0
America and Americans is an interesting and nicely written collection of essays on topics related to . . . America and Americans. Steinbeck displays his wisdom and knowledge on a range of topics and discusses how the current events and issues of the 1960's are related. It is fascinating (as always) to read Steinbeck's insight and thoughts, but the context of the 60's should be kept in mind when reading them today, in the 21st century. While some of his views are somewhat dated, those are the exception to the mass of wisdom and intelligence that are conveyed as he works through each topic. The book's pages are the majority photos from famous photographers, but aside from the photographer credits in the back of the book, there are no captions or descriptions of any kind, which is frustrating when viewing the pictures for content and context, etc. This is a great read for Steinbeck fans and Americans alike.
sreddous's review against another edition
3.25
Given that Travels with Charley is one of my favorite books of all time, I was eager to find more of Steinbeck's writing about travel, geography, human geography, etc. But, truly, Steinbeck is a storyteller before he's an essayist, and that's pretty evident here. The writing is still descriptive but seems more blunt and straightforward, and that leaves more room for his opinions and claims to age poorly instead of remain the observing, timeless-feeling journey that Travels with Charley was. This was a quick, easy read, gave me a few chuckles from some particularly-efficient descriptions, but not terribly memorable (the pictures are awesome though).
flickerofinsanity's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
milliemuroi's review
4.0
Inspired by Caitlin, I had a dig in the family archives. I’d come across this book a number of times but never stopped for long enough to notice its author - John Steinbeck! - or the annotations that put my schooldays to shame.
A really great perspective on the land of the free, that is critically self-aware and infused with entertaining anecdotes. Still highly relevant in today’s political and socio-cultural climate.
A really great perspective on the land of the free, that is critically self-aware and infused with entertaining anecdotes. Still highly relevant in today’s political and socio-cultural climate.
msand3's review
5.0
Steinbeck's final book is a meditation on the American people, character, landscape, history, and future. He offers insight on the paradoxes of our political system, the immigrant experience (and our subsequent [mis]treatment of immigrants), the myths that construct our shared American identity, the way we project our identity to the world, our connection to (and destruction of) the land, our economic obsession, the pitfalls of our nation, and how we seem to overcome our flaws to continue progressing as a united people. Steinbeck offers an honest, frank, and highly-subjective analysis (which he freely admits on page one), and he does so out of an obvious abundance of love for the nation and its people. This hardback edition from 1966 is a large book that contains striking black-and-white and color photos, offering a glimpse of the United States in the mid-twentieth century that perfectly compliments Steinbeck's text. Photographs are included from Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, and Alfred Eisenstaedt, among many others.
Sometimes Steinbeck's essays are illustrated by personal experiences or stories he has heard from other Americans. The result is a literary composite of a people in the mid-20th century, at the height of the United States' influence in the world after WWII, but also in the midst of challenging and chaotic problems that reverberate today, including the Cold War, the atomic age, and the struggle for civil rights. Steinbeck's national portrait still holds strikingly true fifty years later. His warnings of a populace numbed by complacency, greed, and comfort, and all-too-riled-up by emotional political rhetoric that panders to base fear and prejudice, remains relevant as our nation enters the unchartered waters of a Trump administration that threatens to take us down an authoritarian route.
Perhaps we can understand the rise of Trump from Steinbeck's view of what Americans desire in their politicians: "We want a common candidate but an uncommon office holder." It's an impossible contradiction, but one that has somehow worked in the past, as Steinbeck acknowledges. But what happens when that office holder is revealed to be decidedly "common"? Or even worse: dangerous? Again, we may turn to Steinbeck for some words of hope. The final paragraph of his afterword reassures us that even in the midst of our darkest moments (which Steinbeck does not shy away from illuminating throughout the book) Americans always manage to rise to the occasion and push for progress. The final paragraph is worth printing in its entirety:
"From our beginning, in hindsight at least, our social direction is clear. We have moved to become one people out of many. At intervals, men or groups, through fear of people or the desire to use them, have tried to change our direction, to arrest our growth, or to stampede the Americans. This will happen again and again. The impulses which for a time enforced the Alien and Sedition Laws, which have used fear and illicit emotion to interfere with and put a stop to continuing revolution, will rise again, and they will serve us in the future as they have in the past to clarify and to strengthen our process. We have failed sometimes, taken wrong paths, paused for renewal, filled our bellies and licked our wounds; but we have never slipped back--never."
Let us take strength from Steinbeck's words, and understand that as we take up the mantle of progress against the forces of fear and division, we are engaging in the long, unending national struggle of a people who stubbornly fight against the odds--and against our own base flaws and shortcomings--to reach for an ideal which might be impossible to achieve, but which is nonetheless worth striving for, since it is in that struggle where we find the greatness of our people as a nation and in our shared humanity.
Sometimes Steinbeck's essays are illustrated by personal experiences or stories he has heard from other Americans. The result is a literary composite of a people in the mid-20th century, at the height of the United States' influence in the world after WWII, but also in the midst of challenging and chaotic problems that reverberate today, including the Cold War, the atomic age, and the struggle for civil rights. Steinbeck's national portrait still holds strikingly true fifty years later. His warnings of a populace numbed by complacency, greed, and comfort, and all-too-riled-up by emotional political rhetoric that panders to base fear and prejudice, remains relevant as our nation enters the unchartered waters of a Trump administration that threatens to take us down an authoritarian route.
Perhaps we can understand the rise of Trump from Steinbeck's view of what Americans desire in their politicians: "We want a common candidate but an uncommon office holder." It's an impossible contradiction, but one that has somehow worked in the past, as Steinbeck acknowledges. But what happens when that office holder is revealed to be decidedly "common"? Or even worse: dangerous? Again, we may turn to Steinbeck for some words of hope. The final paragraph of his afterword reassures us that even in the midst of our darkest moments (which Steinbeck does not shy away from illuminating throughout the book) Americans always manage to rise to the occasion and push for progress. The final paragraph is worth printing in its entirety:
"From our beginning, in hindsight at least, our social direction is clear. We have moved to become one people out of many. At intervals, men or groups, through fear of people or the desire to use them, have tried to change our direction, to arrest our growth, or to stampede the Americans. This will happen again and again. The impulses which for a time enforced the Alien and Sedition Laws, which have used fear and illicit emotion to interfere with and put a stop to continuing revolution, will rise again, and they will serve us in the future as they have in the past to clarify and to strengthen our process. We have failed sometimes, taken wrong paths, paused for renewal, filled our bellies and licked our wounds; but we have never slipped back--never."
Let us take strength from Steinbeck's words, and understand that as we take up the mantle of progress against the forces of fear and division, we are engaging in the long, unending national struggle of a people who stubbornly fight against the odds--and against our own base flaws and shortcomings--to reach for an ideal which might be impossible to achieve, but which is nonetheless worth striving for, since it is in that struggle where we find the greatness of our people as a nation and in our shared humanity.
highgearlitebeer's review against another edition
3.0
dated but insightful contemporary look into our nation sixty years back
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