03545cam a2200337 4500 1261927772 TxAuBib 080305s2008||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2008009990 9780385522762 0385522762 (OCoLC)6122 DLC DLC BTCTA BAKER YDXCP C#P BWX ZJI CDX JED IG# XQJ NOR IAY CQU TEX JQD EDK HIR TxAuBib Parini, Jay. Promised land : thirteen books that changed America / Jay Parini. 1st ed. New York : Doubleday, 2008. 385 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. An analysis of the thirteen books that changed America. Includes bibliographical references (p. [375]-385). Of Plymouth Plantation -- Federalist Papers -- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin -- Journals of Lewis and Clark -- Walden -- Uncle Tom's Cabin -- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Souls of black folk -- Promised land -- How to win friends and influence people -- Common sense book of baby and child care -- On the road -- Feminine mystique -- Appendix: One hundred more books that changed America. From the Publisher: ""These thirteen books must be seen as representative, not definitive, works. They are nodal points, places where vast areas of thought and feeling gathered and dispersed, creating a nation as various and vibrant as the United States, which must be considered one of the most successful nation-states in modern history, and a republic built firmly on ideas, which are contained in its major texts. Where we have been must, of course, determine where we are going. My hope is that this book helps to show us where we have been and engenders a lively conversation about our destination, which seems perpetually in dispute."" Americans need periodic reminding that they are, to a great extent, people of the book-or, rather, books. In Promised Land, Jay Parini repossesses that vibrant, intellectual heritage by examining the life and times of thirteen ""books that changed America."" Each of the books has been a watershed, gathering intellectual currents already in motion and marking a turn in American life and thought. Their influence remains pervasive, however hidden, and in his essays Jay Parini demonstrates how these books entered American life and altered how we think and act in the world. The thirteen ""books that changed America"": Of Plymouth Plantation; The Federalist Papers; The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; The Journals of Lewis and Clark; Walden; Uncle Tom's Cabin; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Souls of Black Folk; The Promised Land; How to Win Friends and Influence People; The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care; On the Road; The Feminine Mystique. Promised Land offers a reading of the American psyche, allowing us to reflect on what our past means for who we are now. It is a rich and immensely readable work of cultural history that will appeal to all book lovers and students of the American character alike. American literature History and criticism. Books United States Reviews. Books and reading United States. Literature and morals History. Literature and society United States History. National characteristics, American, in literature. United States Historiography. United States In literature.