Dreaming Up America
Best-selling novelist Banks's (Cloudsplitter; The Sweet Hereafter) first work of nonfiction was developed from a television interview with a French documentary producer two years ago, which was translated into French and is now available in English in the United States. Originally directed to a French audience to describe the history of the American people, the content is nonetheless enlightening to Americans, too. The book presents, essentially, an interdisciplinary overview of America from Colonial times to the present and America's development out of spiritual, ethical, and materialistic impulses. Banks's narrative is not always flattering, as he dissects our national myths and exposes the realities, but it may nudge readers to take an introspective look at themselves and our nation. The book is also not comprehensive, but it is a condensed and holistic construct of American history, eloquently written and highly readable. Banks ends with an implicit warning about our nationalism, which he describes as a destructive force, a fervor and mass hallucination, that can control our thinking. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.—Mark Alan Williams, Library of CongressCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.