Description: From revolution to civil rights, Old Hollywood to the Space Age--the extraordinary story of a nation that contains multitudes
Brief description: Don Watson is an author and screenwriter who formerly worked as a political adviser and speechwriter. He is the author of three Quarterly Essays and many acclaimed books, including Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, American Journeys, The Bush, Watsonia, and The Passion of Private White.
Review Quotes: This is not travelogue, it is dazzlingly eloquent and perceptive; it is the Tocqueville of damaged but persistent and enduring dreams. Like Tocqueville, and unlike much writing by foreigners about the United States, it is affectionate and comes across the many Americas and their oddities with an uncondemning eye. It is entertaining and celebrates the not-often mentioned capacity of Americans to talk, narrate their lives and utter orations, a tendency which has always interested me as a foreigner. It is full of incident and consistently engaging. As a star of the epigram he's right up there with Tocqueville, and as a story-teller he loses nothing to Theroux.--Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's List, on American Journeys