April Not Fiction Book Discussions

With The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible by Simon Winchester, we continue our discussion of what holds us together as a nation and what forces have the potential to tear us apart. In his Preface, Winchester tell the reader that his book is "a meditation on the nature of this American unity, a hymn to the creation of oneness, a parsing of the rich complexities that lie behind the country's so-simple-sounding motto: E pluribus unum" (xvi). Trained as a geologist, he focuses especially on "what might be called the physiology and the physics of the country, the strands of connective tissue that have allowed it to achieve all it has, and yet to keep itself together while doing so. For the ties that bind are most definitely, in their essence, practical and physical things" (xviii). He recounts the work of explorers, inventors, and businessmen who have linked the geographical United States by canal, rail, highway, telegraph, and Internet.

Winchester chooses to emphasize what holds us together in his book, even though the events he describes are part of the somewhat discredited notion of American exceptionalism, the belief that it is America's Manifest Destiny to subdue the North American continent, a belief that continues to influence its foreign policy initiatives today. An interviewer for The Daily Beast asked him, "You became an American citizen two years ago. How did that influence your decision to write this book?" He replied, "I had long thought that America, on this particular part of its history, has been particularly hard on herself. As I was approaching the time to write the book, it was also the time of the financial meltdown, the Bush presidency--a number of things that made America, a large chunk of itself at least--feel disillusioned with itself and its standing in the world. I wanted essentially to say, I threw my lot in with this country because I believed in what it stands for. I wanted to write a book that, in essence, reminded everybody what a great experiment the United States is."

A critic for The New York Times notes that "When people are smitten, they are blind to flaws in their beloved. Winchester is no exception, and this book is less a history than a love letter," while a critic for the Globe and Mail says The Men Who United the States is a "foundation myth" about "the greatness of American enterprise, and the verve and dazzle of that nation's rise to power." What do you think? Should Winchester be more critical of America as a capitalist enterprise? Of the roll of big government in establishing and maintaining America's infrastructure? Should he devote more space to a consideration of the role of women and minorities in the development of the nation?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, April 17, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

Readalikes: If you liked March's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey by Peter Carlson, then you might these titles suggested by our discussion group members: Cold Mountain: A Novel by Charles Frazier in which a wounded Civil War soldier returns to his home in the mountains of North Carolina and is hunted by the Home Guard as a deserter; This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust, which explores the impact of the enormous death toll of the Civil War; and, of course, The Odyssey, the classic epic poem by Homer.

March Not Fiction Book Discussions

Junius Browne and Albert Richardson reported on the Civil War for the abolitionist New York Tribune. They were captured by Confederates and spent nearly two years in a series of brutal prisons before escaping and walking 300 miles through the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains in the dead of winter to Union lines. Along the way, they were aided by slaves and Union sympathizers and supported by their devoted friendship. In Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey, Peter Carlson has crafted a true epic, with nods to both the form and the content of Homer's Odyssey, from their harrowing adventure.

Carlson, himself a journalist who reported for The Washington Post for 22 years, is clearly fond of his two real-life protagonists. In Chapter 23, he comments wryly on the first newspaper articles to appear about Junius Browne's escape from Salisbury prison: "Those two short items in the Tribune provide a valuable lesson about the glamour and the glory of a career as a newspaper reporter: Junius Browne risked his life covering a war. He was captured by the enemy and imprisoned for 20 months. He escaped and trudged 300 miles over snow-covered mountains. And when he finally reached safety, his own newspaper misspelled his name. Several times. On several days. First name and last name" (222). Carlson also dedicates the book "To newspaper reporters, past and present, who went off on adventures and came back with stories." Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy asks us to consider the important role journalists have played in recording and even making American history. George Packer says of the many political, social, and cultural crises in our history, "The unwinding is nothing new. There have been unwindings every generation or two . . . Each decline brought renewal, each implosion released energy, out of each unwinding came a new cohesion. . . . In the unwinding, everything changes and nothing lasts, except for the voices, American voices . . . " (The Unwinding). Our journalists' voices and the principles of free speech and witnessing the truth have been a through line in the American story.

As James M. McPherson, author of the classic one-volume history of the Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom, notes, "This absorbing story of two Northern war reporters who were captured by the Confederates at Vicksburg demonstrates that for the Civil War, truth is indeed more thrilling than fiction. The accounts of the essential help the escapees received from slaves and Southern white Unionists provide key insights on Southern society." How does Junius and Albert's story illustrate the political, social, and cultural challenges America faced at the time of the Civil War? After reading their story, what do you think held us together as a nation at that desperate moment when it seemed like we might come apart? Does their story make you optimistic about our future as a nation?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, March 4, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, March 20, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed February's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore, then you might like this wide variety of titles suggested by our discussion group members: Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick for an idea of what Jane's life was like during the siege of Boston; Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff for an understanding of the issues that divided Ben Franklin and his son William, Patriot and Loyalist, during the Revolutionary War; George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger for a portrait of other citizens who helped to shape the emerging nation, who might have faded out of the historical record if not for the work of historians studying the lives of ordinary people; The Invention of Wings: A Novel by Sue Monk Kidd about Charleston's Grimke sisters and their enslaved handmaid that brings to life the restrictions on the lives and aspirations of women and enslaved Africans even a century after the Revolution; Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn for an understanding of how issues like gender and literacy affect women's lives today; and Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff for another example of a biography written with very little source material to draw from that builds a portrait of a woman by coloring in her historical and cultural background.

February Not Fiction Book Discussions

In Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore, Lepore reminds us that Benjamin Franklin's autobiography serves as an "allegory about America: the story of a man as the story of a nation." Ben rose from poverty to become an educated, independent man of the world. One could argue that his gender was the essential element in his success. As a man, Ben had access to an education and to work that allowed him to continue his studies and to travel. His sister Jane, as a woman, did not have access to an education. She was expected to become a mother and a homemaker. Although Jane loved to read and learned to write, she did not leave an extensive written record of her life because, as a woman, she had little time to write, and, as a person of modest means, her few writings were not considered worth preserving. Jane did write a small book that recorded the major events of a mother's life, a Book of Ages that noted the births and deaths of her children and other family members. She also wrote years of letters to her brother recording her opinions about her life and times, but decades of these letters have been lost. Lepore suggests that Jane's life is also an allegory: "it explains what it means to write history not from what survives but from what is lost."

Jane Franklin's story helps us to understand the historical record in a new light. How we understand our nation's history depends upon whose history we are able to read and remember. And because that written and preserved history is largely that of our founding fathers, we could easily lose sight of the fact that our founding mothers, ordinary women like Jane Franklin, also helped to shape our values and traditions.

Because Jane did not leave many written remains, Lepore has created what New York Times critic Dwight Garner calls "an elegant write-around." Is she successful in bringing Jane and her times to life? Do you think, given other historical circumstances, Jane Franklin could have been as famous as her brother? How have women's lives and the value we place upon them changed since Jane's times? How would America's history be different if the lives and opinions of women like Jane had been considered valuable all along?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, February 4, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, February 20, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed January's selection . . .

If you enjoyed The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer, then you might also like the books Packer reviews in A Critic at Large: Don't Look Down for The New Yorker (April 29, 2013), a look at the new Depression literature. These titles include Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession by Barbara Garson; Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff; and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges with illustrations by Joe Sacco. You could also read the U. S. A. trilogy of novels by John Dos Passos, published in the 1930s, which Packer acknowledges influenced the subject, structure, and style of The Unwinding.

January Not Fiction Book Discussions

We begin our road trip through American history and culture with one of the most talked-about books of 2013: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer. Inspired by John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy, Packer creates a montage of longer biographical narratives of ordinary Americans, shorter biographical sketches of celebrities of all kinds, and collages or mashups of cultural memes to illustrate the "unwinding" over the last three decades of the America most of us take for granted, "when the coil that held Americans together in its secure and sometimes stifling grip first gave way." Packer is referring in particular to what he calls the "Roosevelt Republic," a cohesive national web of public and private institutions that offers a place and a sense of security for all citizens. He argues that what has taken its place is organized money and a cult of celebrity that has reached beyond entertainment into other areas of public life, including government.

Looking back over the last three decades, do you recall noticing signs of this unwinding as they were occurring? What were they? Or did they only become clear upon looking back, as through a rear view mirror? In his Prologue, Packer suggests that unwindings of political, social, and cultural structures in our country are nothing new, that "Each decline brought renewal, each implosion released energy, out of each unwinding came a new cohesion." Yet in an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, Packer says of this particular devolution, "What I see happening is not just cyclical, though, it feels like a real cultural shift where the value of the community, of what makes this a coherent society, has really been submerged." What do you think? Do you see the events of the last three decades in the same light as Packer does? Do you feel that they are cyclical or that they represent a true cultural shift? Does Packer offer any hope for our collective future? Do you see any? And finally, do you think future generations will read Packer's book as we do works like Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, or do you think it is closer to a cry that the sky is falling that will appear alarmist to future readers?

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer includes collages, called Mashups, of headlines, slogans, and songs that capture the flow of events—the social and political undercurrents—in a given year. Did you find yourself wondering what sources Packer used? Click here for an interactive page on the publisher's website that provides source notes.

We hope you will join the discussion of this winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Nonfiction: Tuesday, January 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, January 16, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.