YES VIRGINIA, THERE'S SHOPPING AS IT USED TO BE

The products are Americana, the convenience is contemporary, but the ambiance is American shopping as it was in a time before mega malls. It all can be found at the Village Shops our Main Street Business District of Americana goods and services. More

SEE THE U.S.A. IN YOUR OWN JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

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GREAT LAKES LIGHTHOUSES, AMERICAN AND CANADIAN
A Comprehensive Directory/Guide By Wes Oleszewski, Photography by Wayne S. Sapulski 1998; Avery Color Studios, Inc.; Gwinn, MI ISBN: 0-932212-98-0; $16.95

In this neck of the woods we embrace the offbeat. So , when a book recently crossed our desk entitled "Offbeat Museums", naturally we were intrigued.

Offbeat Museums, The Collections and Curators of America's Most Unusual Museums by Saul Rubin (Santa Monica Press) contains profiles some of America's stranger museums.

Some of the places visited include, the Cockroach Museum , The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, and The UFO Enigma Museum. There are even entries for the America Funeral Service Museum (Houston) and the Barney Smith Toilet Seat Museum (San Antonio).

Much of the information is not unique. It can be found elsewhere, including our Hidden America. But Rubin's presentation is entertaining. Offbeat Museums provides a valuable written addition to an American library.

The Road Within - True Stories of Transformation

It's a time when we gather to give thanks. But as we sit at the Thanksgiving table perhaps we should not only pause to say thank you for all we have been blessed for, but also to ask whether we are truly living or just marking time from one calendar observance to another.

The Road Within, Traveler's Tales Guide, 1997; $17.95, is a unique book. All you need to know is that this book can be found in a book store under one of two headings - Spirituality/Travel Guides.

We often have spoken about the benefits of travel as not only a physical journey but when of the spirit as well. It is not just about going from point A to point B for we are changed by our experience. Some times the change is minimal - sometimes the change can be transforming.

This book is dedicated to chronicling the experiences of those who have been changed by travel. It is, in fact, a book of transformation, of lessons learned, maps drawn and burned and spiritual blessings bestowed by what is described as a great and hard teacher: travel.

Over 40 different contributors have offered their contributions on how they have been changed through travel. Perspectives are diverse ranging from Anne Dillard, Redmond O'Hanlon to Rabbi David A. Cooper.

Although the venues written of go far beyond America, this work and its guiding philosophy very much parallel the philosophy of our Hidden America. It is our ability to be open and receptive to new ideas and experiences that not only enhances travel, but also makes life richer and more rewarding.

As one in search of Americana, this search has also taken me to the bookstores and libraries of America for books that capture the spirit of Americana at its best.

We recently came across a series of books that are quite successful in capturing this spirit. Art of the State is a series of new pictorial books that capture the authentic spirit of various United States. Each volume is highlighted by a gallery of images – fine and folk art, architecture, crafts, photos of places and people. Each also describes what’s unique about a particular state: its natural and manmade winders, historical and cultural high points. The books include sections on Native American arts, official state symbols, famous artists and a writers, musical traditions, and roadside attractions.

The first book we managed to see was that of Maryland, a state I am familiar with as my wife’s family hails from there. This book covers Maryland through its history and artistic traditions. From Edgar Allen Poe to H.L. Menken, Russell Baker, the Calverts and Peales to Eubie Blake and Babe Ruth, the book is easy to read yet comprehensive and thoughtful. It is a good read and a strong travel companion.

At present the series includes Maryland, California, Iowa and New Mexico. Others on the way. We will keep you advised as they appear.

ART OF THE STATE: Maryland Harry N. Abrams, New York; 1998; 96 pages; ISBN 0-8109-5551-2

FUNKTOWNS USA The Best Alternative, Eclectic, Irreverent and Visionary Places by Mark Cramer TBS Publishing, Annapolis, MD; 1995; $11.95

Fall is an active time of year. As temperatures start to cool new energy is found. To many it's a time of renewal and new beginnings. And let's not forget that it's traditionally the start of a new academic year,

Autumn is also a good time to set out on the road. There are many festivals; fall foliage is beautiful, and one can often travel at a more leisurely pace as the summer tourist throngs have departed for other endeavors.

Here at hiddenamerica.com, we have crafted our efforts with an eye towards the unique and off-beat as counterparts to the conventional.

With all of the above in mind, we call your attention to a book that was created to provide access to information to what it describes as "the best alternative, eclectic, irreverent and visionary places".

One reviewer has aptly described the book as an appropriate work to explore "if you're looking for a place to explore or perhaps settle". Author Mark Cramer, who previously has written fiction and travel articles, explains his inspiration for the book is based on his reaction against "the sameness across the land", be it "alienating suburban sprawl or dehumanizing urban renewal".

As Carmer puts it,the symptoms of this monoculturalism can be found in the from of regional shopping malls that drive Main Street out of business, the iconization of the automobile destroys pedestrian life and public transportation, single-use zoning that breeds "communities" with only one dimension, and the corporate media that irons out all of the interesting creases in the cultural landscape, leaving just a flat, one-dimensional world view with few alternatives.

This book is Cramer's effort to mine and harvest those corners of the U.S. that resist this homogenization - "places that refuse to accept the mainstream way of doing things". Says Cramer, "the word funky is a metaphor for unconventional , bluesy, bizarre, eclectic, iconoclastic, or simply alternative".

Funkytown utilizes a new standard to rate locations based on originality - for example he highly rates one location that excuses children from class to help on the potato harvest; a place where the owner of the local brothel is a sponsor of the little league; a place where an Independent bested Democrats and Republicans alike; a place where there are no property taxes and transportation is free; and a place that receives its identity from the man who burned it down.

Where are these places ? For the sake of the author and the publisher, we'll let you buy or borrow the book to find out.

For present purposes, you may find the list of communities included to be surprising. Some places are predictable enough - Burlington, Vermont; Portland, Oregon; New Paltz, and Ithaca, New York or Santa Fe, New Mexico.

But the inclusion of others will surprise you. For example, Madawaska, Maine; Sandy Hook, New Jersey; and the notorious communities of Love Canal and South Bronx, New York are part of this book.

This book can be guide. But it is much more. It tells us what we still are about around the edges. And as importantly, it tells us what we are capable of being when we are at our best. It's a book for the armchair traveler as well as the traveler. And it's a beg that begs to be read and experienced in a leisurely manner - very much against the omnipresent force that frequently rushes us in a momentum force to no known destination.

Years ago Christmas meant being home for the holidays. To the majority of Americans that is still the case. But increasingly the Christmas to New Years period has become a time for diversion and "recharging the battery". Most frequently this renewal is seen by a visit to a ski slope or a tropical resort.

But interestingly another option is evolving -one that combines a change from the normal routine, but an experience that also provides the opportunity for spiritual; re3newal and growth.

This trend was brought to my attention by a travel book that recently caught my eye. Sanctuaries, by Jack and Marcia Kelly (Updated Edition, 1996 Bell Tower Press; New York) is a guide to lodgings in monasteries, abbeys and retreats.

The notion of a retreat is an appealing one to many. As the pace of life quickens and people feel a pull to recuperate and regenerate , the quiet and seclusion of a monastery can provide the time, space and conditions for the mind and heart to come to stillness. This book features come 127 such places, which the authors have visited. In addition, there are listings of another thousand locations not visited by the Kellys. Most are Catholic and Episcopalian, but other offerings are Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi and Jewish havens - as well as those that have no religious affiliation. Their common thread is that they are locations where it is possible to find refuge, peace, true refreshment -- and perhaps some of those core feelings and values to which the holiday season was originally intended to address.

The Tombstone Tourist- Musicians; Scott Stanton; 3T Publishing; $19.95

What's more appropriate for Halloween than a book about cemeteries ?

The term deadhead takes on a whole new meaning after you spend some time with The Tombstone Tourist - Musicians, a new book by Scott Stanton (1998; $19.95; ISBN 0-9659966-9-7).

Now anyone can discover where their favorite singers, composers, and conductors are booked - for eternity. The final resting place of over 200 of the 20th century's most dearly departed are revealed in this quirky guide.

Grave sites have always fascinated tourists, whether they sought inspiration from war memorials or a walk near the rich and famous. The author found that many spots are not as public as the resting spot of Princess Di. In fact Stanton had to do some real digging to come up with important grave sites, many revealed for the first time in The Tombstone Tourist.

From Florida to California, this book describes gravesites of the famous - individuals ranging from Sarah Vaughn in Bloomfield, N.J.'s Glendale Cemetery to Karen Carpenter, Andy Gibb and Liberace who all lie at Hollywood's Forest lawn Cemetery.

The Tombstone tourist is interested in more than granite and cemetery shrubs. It includes artists' biographies (including cause of death), locations of their birthplaces, childhood homes, "places of exit", relevant museums, archives and shrines and tips for recording and memorabilia collectors.

The book, which grew out of the author's website, is divided into three categories, each arranged alphabetically for easy reference - The Legends: Roy Acuff to Frank Zappa; The Best of the Rest: Chet Baker to Ether Waters; and Gone but Not Forgotten (those without a final resting place): John Bonham to Dennis Wilson. So whether your idol is Janis Joplin or Benny Goodman, you can get within six feet of them with a little help from The Tombstone Tourist - Musicians.

These days too many have come to associate baseball with millionaire ballplayers, moving players and franchises, labor unrest and stadiums that cater increasingly to elite corporate clients.

But just below this simplistic and surface view of baseball lies the "soul of the game" which still endures, not withstanding the actions of multi-millionaire owners and their media and Madison Avenue partners.

A Fodor's publication, Ballpark Vacations, Great Family Trips to Minor League and Classic Major League parks Across America, successfully bridges two distinct roles. Its promotional materials tout 24 unforgettable family trips to 75 of America's most fan-friendly minor league and classic Major League ballparks.

On the one hand, this is a book that understands why baseball is more than just a game (and more than just a business). Notwithstanding inroads by basketball and football, baseball still occupies a uniquely prominent role in America's folk culture and history. While this Baseball-America is at times orchestrated and contrived in many major league parks, it can be authentically found and felt in parks from large (i.e. Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field) to those small (McDermott Field in Boise, Idaho and Bowen Field in Bluefield, West Virginia). It especially can be found at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York (home of the Milford Macs) and the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. This book helps re-assure old time baseball fans that despite the best efforts of some running "big league baseball" to ruin the game, some of the best aspects of the sport manage to endure.

At the same time, this book is also a practical and valuable travel book. It provides hard information and recommends trips. These circuits often include visits to major league and minor league parks. The authors "traveled 25,000 miles, visited 44 states and saw 85 baseball games in 82 stadiums, gotten 11 foul balls, and seen three rainbows". They provide general travel tips, baseball tips, directions, suggested accommodations, off-stadium sites, attractions and entertainment.

If you choose to seek America's soul through baseball, Ballpark Vacations is a wonderful companion on this sentimental journey.

BALLPARK VACATIONS, by Bruce Adams & Margaret Engel; Fodor's Travel Publications; 1997; $16.50 (Paperback)

By the way, the authors seek a dialogue with you. they may reached at their web site by contacting: www.clark.net/pub/rothman/ballpark.htm.

Did Lief Ericcson beat Columbus to America ? Did Pocahontas really save John Smith ? These are but two of a few of the intriguing questions of American history.

Unsolved Mysteries of American History re-creates some of the most mystifying events of our past and follows some of our great historians as they search for answers. Acting as detectives of history, these historians gather evidence, pore over eyewitness testimony, head down dead ends, unmask liars, frauds and inaccuracies, and offer their solutions. Author Paul Aron puts together all of the evidence and examines such questions as:

• What was the meaning of CROATAN, the puzzling letters covered on the fort at the Lost Colony of Roanoke ?
• Do reports from the Mexican side of the legendary battle suggest that Davy Crockett did not die at the Alamo ?
• What did nuclear engineers discover while examining the wreckage of the Maine ?
• What caused the Salem Witch-Hunt ?
• Who was to blame for Pearl Harbor ?

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF AMERICAN HISTORY by Paul Aron; 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; $22.95

ALONG THE EDGE OF AMERICA

by Peter Jenkins, Mariner Books, Boston/New York 1995; $12.00

At Hidden America, we endorse the notion of exiting the interstate and taking the time to explore America at a leisurely pace off the beaten path. Fact is there are many alternate routes which let the traveler see America from a different and rewarding perspective.

One such alternate route is off the road and in the water.

The best-selling author and walker Peter Jenkins, author of a Walk Across America, has taken to the waves in this book to explore a part of America rich in history, mystery, and lore: the Gulf Coast from the Florida Keys to the Mexican border, by way of the Everglades, the treacherous "jungle woods", genteel southern homesteads, Cajun marshlands, and Texas' coastal cattle country. You not only visit a place, but a people and various ways of life. The common thread is the water as a point of departure into the various stories and perspectives that subjects bring.

Through Jenkins we learn not only of a region from a water perspective, but about ourselves - who we are and what we hold as important.

If you haven’t guessed by now, one of the inspirations of the founding of this site is Charles Kuralt. For more than 30 years before his death in 1997, Kuralt was considered a Mark Twain of television, a traveler of this country’s highways and byways for those things Authentically capturing the American spirit. Time magazine described him as "the laureate of the common man".

The project on which Kuralt was working before his death was An American Moment with Charles Kuralt, a series of brief television essays about the people, places and ideas that define the national spirit: the man who handcuts the president’s shoes; the Keeper of the Flame on Liberty Island; Paul Bunyan’s hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota; the Pony Expresss Museum; cowboy hats, Ferris wheel and more.

It reflects as did Kuralt the diversity of America through its people, places, icons, -even through our nation’s diversity of natural wonders.

Kuralt’s longtime friend and CBS colleague Peter Freundlich, who wrote and produced the America Moments Series for television, edits and collects the essays for this book. There is also an audio edition of the book. I highly recommend both.

In his preface Freundlich, in attempting to capture the essence of Charles Kuralt (not that anyone fully can), says that far away from the sirens, crowds and pitchmen of society and the media, was Kuralt "to find antidotes to the evasive illness we didn’t even know we had – antidotes in the form of quiet truthful, beautifully told and shaped stories about the best in us, and about people so unself-regarding that they themselves did not know, until Charles held up the mirror to them, that there was anything to admire". Trying to put his finger on Freundich says Kuralt’s voice combined with superior craftsmanship in writing had something to do with it. But there was more. "…his capacity for admiration of, and his ability to make us admire, too, whittlers, fiddlers, stonecarvers, sharecroppers, bridge- and wall and road builders, kite flyers, sling shooters, coal miners, canal men, cowboys, raisers of crops and of children and of hope".

I continue to marvel in the artistry of what he created. And I treasure the gift of the legacy that he has left behind for us safeguard and treasure.

Charles Kuralt's American Moments Simon Schuster, 1998 ISBN 0-684-85903-3

One of the reasons I love to travel the lonely countryroads around America is that I hail from New Jersey. In these environs, an empty road is considered the New Jersey Turnpike in non-rush hour or Route 4 on Sunday when the shopping centers are closed. But fact is there is more to New Jersey than the turnpike, factories and suburban sprawl.

A favorite target of those not from the Garden State (especially form those critics who hail from N.Y.C.) is the New Jersey Meadowlands. Known mostly as the possible burial site of Jimmy Hoffa, the known burial site of the remnants of the old Pennsylvania Station, the home of sports teams, and landfills, the Meadowlands are more.

Just five miles beyond the Manhattan skyline, and just off the Jersey Turnpike, the Meadowlands are a much vilified but still untamed thirty-five square mile swamp is also home to rare birds, and tranquil marshes. This other side and more are seen in The Meadowlands, a fascinating read by Robert Sullivan.

In the book's 206 pages, Sullivan acts as a naturalist, historian and archeologist. He uncovers artifacts from the ground and gems from the mouths of old timers hailing from the area.

Sullivan over the years has written for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, The New Republic, Rolling Stone and Outside. Once a resident of New Jersey he now lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two children. While a resident of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, the Garden State still lives inside him. It seems that once he was able to behold the breathtaking West that he then started to fully appreciate the neglected beauty that the New Jersey swamp-lands offers. It is this hidden beauty that he shares with readers.

Sullivan reinterprets the reputation of an area considered by many to be one of the most disgusting in the country. He travels by car, by canoe, bus, car and foot to tour cities and swamplands and interviews mayors, dump owners, and renegade mosquitoes control officers. He describes the pollution and the hidden natural winders. The Meadow lands, he explains, is " a place that the forces of progress have perennially targeted but have never managed to completely control, a place that people rush past on their way to the rest of America".

In managing to remind us that one man's trash is anther's treasure, Sullivan manages to challenge us to pause and think and not just continue to blur past the countryside as we race from place to place. At the very least you won't think of New Jersey the same and perhaps you will not be as quick to joke about our fine state.

Thank you Robert Sullivan.

THE MEADOWLANDS
by Robert Sullivan; 1998; Scribner (New York); ISBN 0-684-83285-2

This month we extend our American Places feature in this book review. You see, we have come across an interesting book that shed additional light on American Places.

In Storyville, USA Dale Peterson sets out to find the stories of towns along the way.Whether you're in Toast, North Carolina, Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky or Winner, South Dakota, Storyville is a real town you can find on a map, with a story behind its quirky name.

Covering 20,000 miles of U.S. roads, Dale Peterson drove with his two children from Start, Louisiana to Deadhorse, Alaska, in search of small-town America in what is described as the garage sale of the open highway". Along

the way they explored open spaces, wild places, and back roads, and they met people who shared their stories as well.

Together the Petersons discovered the stories behind nearly 60 towns, guided by local storytellers and their own curiosity. They go to Caddo Lake and Uncertain, Texas, Loco, Oklahoma and Climax, New York.Of course, there is the offbeat and fun. But there is also discussion of history, politics, civil rights, religion and enviromental preservation.

The story of Storyville is actually our story. It is one worth reading. Storyville, USA; by Dale Peterson; University of Georgia Press; 1999; $25.95 (hardcover); ISBN: 0-8203-2151-6

James Loewen's last book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, an expose of twelve leading high-school American history textbooks, won the American Book Award, other accolades, and sold more than a quarter of a million copies in various editions.

A former professor of race relations at the University of Vermont, Loewn, who now resides in Washington, DC, has also written historical works such as The Truth About Columbus, The Mississippi Chinbese and co-authored Mississippi: Conflict and Change, the first integrated history textbook. He is appears to be a scholarly combination of filmmaker Michael Moore (Roger & Me) and legendary author and sage Studs Terkel.

Now using the same technques that worked so well for him before, Loewen is back at it again. This time he is out to expose the untruths, half-truths and distortions into how we tell our national story.

Lies Across America looks at more than one hundred sites where history is told, ranging from historical markers, monuments, museums, historic homes, forts and ships. He uses his research and investigatory skills of those public versions of history, often written in stone, to correct historical interpretations that he concludes are profoundly wrong, to tell neglected but important stories about the American past,and as importantly, to raise questions about what we as a nation choose to commemorate and how.

Lies Across America offers new insights into areas we thought we knew about: Valley Forge, Abraham Lincoln's log cabin, the Intrepid. It also takes us to new sites, events and individuals who should be commemorated and honor by national consensus but are not: a tonstone with a story to tell in Mississippi;a spy in the Confederate White House, the unforseen fallout from the first nuclear missle teast; a reverse undergorund railway, a modern "sundown" town (Blacks can work there, but they'd better leave before the sun sets).

It asks why across the country, Indians are consistently characterized as & wrong and derogatory tribal names are given; why it is Whites who;discover everything; why the term massacre; is a one-way attachment; why war museums have selective memories;, and why tour guides at the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park arespecifically forbidden from talking about FDR's mistresses.

The book is a hard reality check about our history and our process at creating a national story. Any reader will find it hard not to change the way we look at our institutions and ourselves.

Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong; by James W. Loewen; The New Press; distributed by Houghton-Mifflin, 1999; $26.95 (hardcover); ISBN: 1-565584-344-4

It is a season in which we look for inspiration. Some find it in religious spiritulaity; others in acts of good cheer. This year we have found ours between the covers of a book that recently crossed our desk

Megan Edwards, a writer, was put to the test when her home in the Los Angeles foothills was destroyed by wildfire. Facing the dauting task of having to start all over gain, Edwards at the same time fond herself unhindred by the stuff; that had accumulated in her life.Given this situation, she, her husnad and their dog set out on what they thought would be a five month sabbatical on the road to clear out their heads. Their home became a custom-built, four-wheel drive motorhome. Five years and 130,000 miles later they drive on ; at work at home and on the road all at the same time.

Roads From the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier captures what life has been like for the Edwards over the years.

Their observations alone are enough to inform and enlighten. For example, there is the man they met who claimed to have burned truck loads of money. Then there is the story of the residents of a northern California RV park who are all cancer survivors. It is a snapshot of life on the road in the Nineties.

Beyond the appeal of Edwards' observation, the real story here is Edwards herself (and family). It is a lesson in renewal and the ability to rebound after a setback. Not only does Edwards continue to travel, but she has also been able to expand her writing - she is editor of RoadTrip America, described as the only online magazine published entirely from the road.

Her journey has inspired me. I recommend her book to you.
Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier by

Megan Edwards; 1999; trilogy Books; $14.95; ISBN: 1-891290-01-0

This month's offering off the shelf is actually not a book at all. Rather it is more like large brochure/map.

Eccentric California/Map to the Bizarre and Peculiar is the name of the booklet. To some not from the Golden Gate State, everything in California may seem eccentric. But here the authors refer to eccentric in a conventional sense acceptable to all.

Rare First Edition; is now out. Its colorful cover is adorned by some images that capture the essence of the map: flying saucers, the Golden Gate Bridge shroud in fog, balloons carrying a chair, a geological fault, palm trees, sun umbrellas and the famous Hollywood sign.

The guide is described as a compendium of facts and information, trivial and useful, for the traveler and interest of the scholar; containing unusual points of Mythology - Art - History - Archeology - Religion - Anthropology - Geology - Biology - Music - General Science - Pop culture - Fashion - Cinema - Engineering - Architecture - Technology - Sports - Recreation - Natural Features - Current Events - Cultural Events - Folklore - Literature - Psychology - New Age - Crime; Tragedy and other items of local color, bizarre and peculiar.

Sounds like it covers a lot of ground ? It does. On one side is a large contemporary fold-out map adorned by numbers ranging from 1 to 549 at locations of significance throughout the state. The map is actually three maps - one larger one covering most of the state and two smaller inserts covering Baghdad by the Bay & Vicinity (San Francisco Bay Area) and Greater La La Land (LA). Interestingly these inserts are also accompanied by interested quotes relating to the respective areas. For example with the San Francisco map is a 1907 by Ambrose Bierece, "I'd never set foot in San Francisco. Of all of the Sodoms and Gomorrahs in the modern world, it is the worst;; for L.A. a quote attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright, It is as if you tipped the United States up, so everything loose slid down here into Southern California.

On the other side of the map lie the details, specifically, descriptions of the 549 points of interest marked on the map. They range from Like the state itself this map is diverse and a bit quirky. It is a thorough and wonderfully entertaining way to brush up on California for a traveler or armchair traveler. Well worth checking into. For information on how to get the map, or if you have any suggestions to add to Eccentric California, write to: Eccentric California, P.O. Box 8744, Monterey, CA 93943 or e-mail to: 103005.62 @ COMPUSERVE.COM.

To us Hidden America represents the ability to celebrate our nation’s diversity at its best – be the perspective cultural, culinary or regional.

One such regional distinction among us has traditionally included language and dialect. At this web site we periodically visit the topic through various backs tackling the topic. We add one more that we recently came across on the subject.

For 12 years, Jim Crothy has been roaming the U.S. in what he describes as his monkmobile. He says that during this time he has discovered how Americans "really talk and what we think of ourselves and others"..

One result of his travels is the book How To Talk America – A Guide to Our Native Tongues. Distinguishing himself from the academic works on American language, Crotty says that his book " is a snapshot of a place, occupation and culture". He does not look exclusively for dialects or accents. Instead he seeks colorful words and expressions, insider terms, the overall rhetoric (spoken and unspoken). The book is intended to reveal how different kinds of Americans think by noting the way that they talk.

The author describes his work as " a pre-emptive strike against the growing monoculture sweeping the country. He faults the American democratic experience for its "insistence on making all speech recognizable to all, regardless of age, class or educational background".

The book is diverse and comprehensive. It is, in fact a snapshot on our culture. There are the inevitable regional discussions, i.e. New England, New York, The Midwest and South. But there is more – such as an examination of other cultures within the American society – i.e. the music business, Psychobabble, Diners, Crime, Car Culture, Street Slang.

The breadth of the author’s endeavor can be seen be citing a story he outlines:

Every state or region seems to have its respective style of joke. In Minnesota, it’s the Ole and Lena joke or in some circles the Ole and Sven joke. Here’s a sample:

Ole and Sven are out fishing one day, and the fish are biting like crazy. Ole says to the Sven, "We have to remember where we are fishing, so we can come back here tomorrow”. Sven says to Ole, "Oh, don’t worry about that. Ole, I already took care of it. I put an X on the side of the boat". Ole says, "You dummy, we might get a different boat tomorrow".

Please note that this is a mature audience book. Parents should look it over and decide how much they wanted their kids to learn at a given time.

Despite its hard edge, How to Talk American provides a thorough and welcome analysis of one person’ view of American society’s use of language.