On American Character

New in paperback, the latest book in the bestselling Booknotes series is a wide-ranging and compelling collection that helps make sense of America and its place in the world Brian Lamb is the host of Booknotes - America's flagship book TV programme which has become the place for serious, thoughtful non-fiction to get its due. The wide-ranging interviews of the Booknotes series have already been the basis for three best-selling books, and now Lamb presents a new collection of nearly eighty interviews with contemporary non-fiction writers that offer insights into the American national character. Booknotes: On American Character explores the political tensions that have shaped the nation. America has a long history of highly partisan, often bitter politics, from Samuel Tilden and Rutherford B Hayes in the election of 1876 to George W Bush and Al Gore in 2000. Yet Booknotes: On American Character isn't just about periods of national divisiveness. It offers the thoughts of seventy-eight biographers, historians and journalists whose topics span 225 years of the American experience.
You'll read essays on American exceptionalism and of the leaders who promoted it, stories of Americans' penchant for ingenuity and tales of the benefits and downsides of capitalism. Several authors remind us of America's willingness to take up arms to promote democracy, while other writers capture the ongoing struggles with violence and racial prejudice. On American Character is a valuable addition to the Booknotes legacy for anyone interested in the great historical moments, issues and people that have shaped the USA.