num_pages: 336
description: 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 Farmers Almanac How to Win Friends and Influence People Websters American Dictionary of the English Language Betty Crockers 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 customsattempting 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 figuresBenjamin Franklin Dale Carnegie Emily Post and moreto demystify the origins of the great American fable.
language: English
title: Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Books
publisher: Dutton