What do you think?
Rate this book
Inside U.S.A. Revised Edition. SIGNED by author
Please my copy is not signed by the author.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1947
17 people are currently reading
1645 people want to read
About the author
John Gunther
90 books538 followersJohn Gunther was one of the best known and most admired journalists of his day, and his series of "Inside" books, starting with Inside Europe in 1936, were immensely popular profiles of the major world powers. One critic noted that it was Gunther's special gift to "unite the best qualities of the newspaperman and the historian." It was a gift that readers responded to enthusiastically. The "Inside" books sold 3,500,000 copies over a period of thirty years.
While publicly a bon vivant and modest celebrity, Gunther in his private life suffered disappointment and tragedy. He and Frances Fineman, whom he married in 1927, had a daughter who died four months after her birth in 1929. The Gunthers divorced in 1944. In 1947, their beloved son Johnny died after a long, heartbreaking fight with brain cancer. Gunther wrote his classic memoir Death Be Not Proud, published in 1949, to commemorate the courage and spirit of this extraordinary boy. Gunther remarried in 1948, and he and his second wife, Jane Perry Vandercook, adopted a son.
While publicly a bon vivant and modest celebrity, Gunther in his private life suffered disappointment and tragedy. He and Frances Fineman, whom he married in 1927, had a daughter who died four months after her birth in 1929. The Gunthers divorced in 1944. In 1947, their beloved son Johnny died after a long, heartbreaking fight with brain cancer. Gunther wrote his classic memoir Death Be Not Proud, published in 1949, to commemorate the courage and spirit of this extraordinary boy. Gunther remarried in 1948, and he and his second wife, Jane Perry Vandercook, adopted a son.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 18, 2018
If you want a book that will have you say, my goodness this is just like today. Or how does someone manage to cover all the then US states and manage to find something stimulating and penetrating. If you read John Dos Passos's novel, USA, this nonfiction book gives you another insight. Brilliant. They should make a movie about John Gunther. Read the other Insides too.
March 7, 2014
The North Dakota chapter is a hoot! ND has a wacky and radical political history, and he gets into the nuts and bolts of it. He could have discussed the unique beauty of ND, but instead chose to give that discussion to the SD.
April 16, 2021
John Gunther wrote this incredible book about the United States at the very height of its worldwide success and prestige. During World War II, Gunther began an attempt to cover the entire country and the book would be published in 1947 to nation more powerful, influential, and optimistic than it ever would be again.
I do believe Gunther shared in this optimism, but he doesn't view the matter through rose tinted glasses. To his credit he's not afraid to see the problems with the nation, and yet perhaps to the lament of many readers, he won't stop offering his own solutions either. This book is thoroughly political and shamelessly partisan, but more on that later.
Gunther tends to start his books in the most prominent region, the one really shaking things up at the time. For the United States, I would've expected New York perhaps, but I find it telling that the journey begins in California. He then essentially goes clockwise around the nation, ending in the then newest states of the Southwest. The books mostly ignores covering the country as a whole, and it is absolutely driven by the nation's personalities and regions. John Gunther always enjoyed covering a nation's politics, but I found it striking that there is virtually no coverage of the federal government here. You get some focus on federal projects, such as rural electrification, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, but no chapter on Washington D.C. I think Gunther absolutely had enough fame to interview the president, but Truman only gets his focus because Gunther ran into him by chance when he was in Missouri, days before FDR's death made Truman president, and naturally enough the encounter is covered in the chapter on Missouri rather than as any effort to focus on the White House.
Gunther was very much a people's person, and he loved to cover nations through their leading individuals in very heavy detail. Here you will find extensive personal coverage of politicians, all of them prominent at the time but some more forgotten than others. As Gunther mentions in the end American politics is so dynamic that an unknown could be president in less than ten years. None of the personality sections were boring, Gunther has the talent of a novelist to make a reader interested in people that they've never heard of, but some sections can still nonetheless feel extraordinarily dated, and these are the sections that I often found myself skipping over.
You will find yourself learning about how Henry Kaiser, the California Magnate, whom the Hearst papers apparently slandered as a 'coddled New Deal pet', worked with unions to improve efficiency, trained steelyard workers to churn out an impressive amount of ships under government contract during the war, and how he provided healthcare for his workers in “one of the most notable experiments in group medicine ever launched in this country.” You will learn how Glen Taylor, a freshman Idaho senator, started off as an actor, and learned to play banjo and guitar to compete with musical entertainers during the Depression, ran for office, was thoroughly beaten more than once, and then finally won to bring progressive politics and a sense of humor to Washington. Perhaps you're beginning to notice a pattern here. You will also find a unflattering portrait of then governor of New York and former Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey. “A blunt fact about Mr. Dewey should be faced: it is that many people do not like him. He is unfortunately one of the least seductive personalities in public life.” As it happens Dewey was the favorite to be the Republican candidate again in '48. He was actually favored to win the presidency this time, so I can only assume Gunther was doing his duty for the Democratic campaign given the ultimate outcome, perhaps it helped. Partisan politics aside, these are all excellently written portraits and include many forgotten men, although some were so important nationally that they're still well known as historical figures. You get to see some future presidents make cameos here and there, the most poignant one being found in a footnote about Joe Kennedy. “One [Kennedy] son, John F. Kennedy, an attractive youngster of twenty nine, ran for Congress in 1946 and won...”
There is impressive coverage of seemingly all aspects of the American economy and the men and women who played roles in it at all levels. He describes the picturesque wheat fields he sees on the plane from Seattle to Spokane, “the whole rippling blanket underneath might have been the palette of an artist painting sunsets.” You will learn about wheat, corn, cotton, logging, salmon, steel silver, and oil, all in considerable detail. The massive industry of the nation gets coverage, everything from the steelyards of Pittsburgh to the automobile factories of Detroit, the Coca Cola plants of the South, to the newly formed nuclear industry. I enjoyed his description of going through the New York phone directory and listing a widely miscellaneous list of items for sale. Characteristically he's very much a fan of state involvement in industry. He calls the Tennessee Valley Authority “the greatest single American invention of this century, the biggest contribution the United States has yet made to society in the modern world.” To a lesser extent this adulation falls on the nation's other dams as well, but Gunther notes “above and beyond all this is something bigger; what really lies at the heart of the public-private power controversy is the major question: What kind of society is to be built in the United States?” He alludes to his answer at the beginning “The United States is statistically the richest country in the world. It is also a country with no national unemployment or health insurance.” For the record he also complains about the lack of a 'national planning agency.' At the end of the book he tells us a bit more: “The lesson of much in Europe is that if people have to choose between security and liberty, they will choose security. So at all costs the United States should avoid having to make this deplorable choice. Why not have both?...That so many Americans should fear government to the extent they do is an interesting phenomenon, since it means in a way that they fear themselves” To balance things out however I must point out that while covering Huey Long's benevolent but autocratic reign, he remarks that if fascism ever comes to America it will arrive “disguised as socialism.”
The war is over, but Gunther's foreign policy views loom strongly throughout the book,. He's as eager to intervene in foreign affairs as he is in the economy and isolationists are portrayed as secret Nazis at worst, naive buffoons at best. He certainly believes the U.S. Should play a role in the emerging global scene, most notably through the nascent United Nations, which in a picturesque detail many American cities even small towns struggled to win the location of, before it finally went to New York. Gunther quotes the liberal Republican Harold Stassen, champion of the United Nations, a man not afraid to say that “we do not subscribe to the extreme view of nationalist sovereignty, that we realize that neither this nation, nor any other nation, can be a law unto itself in the modern world, and that we are willing to delegate a limited portion of our national sovereignty to our United Nations organizations...true sovereignty rests in the people, and the people know that for their own future welfare they must exercise a portion of that sovereignty on a world level in place of a nationalist level”
Gunther is very progressive on race issues as well, and the problem of black-white relations looms prominently throughout the book even back in California. Gunther quotes the famed African-American scholar George Schuyler on the matter: “there is actually no Negro problem, there is definitely a Caucasian problem...The so called Negroes...have passed few if any Jim Crow laws...set up few white ghettoes, carried on no discriminatory practices against whites, and have not devoted centuries of propaganda to prove the superiority of blacks over whites.” Gunther is against discrimination and tries to explore and take apart the matter even taunting potential bigoted, Southern readers by emphasizing that yes indeed, there are places in the nation where blacks and whites play sports together, even get married. When Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall tries to reassure Gunther that there is no legal neighborhood segregation in Atlanta, Gunther is affronted and in the book berates the governor for not taking into account the problem of 'self segregation' as explained by sociologist Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish sociologist who basically wrote the definitive progressive textbook on American racial issues in the early 20th century, and whose views are essentially still in vogue today in the 21st century.
Gunther has a wonderful and memorable literary talent in capturing the regions which he visits. New York City is “the incomparable, the brilliant star city, the forty ninth state, a law unto itself, the Cyclopean paradox, the inferno with no out of bounds, the supreme expression of both the miseries and the splendors of contemporary civilization.” California is “the most spectacular and most diversified...so ripe, golden, yeasty, churning in flux...a world of its own...[containing] fruit, glaciers, sunshine, desert, and petroleum," and so he goes on in every corner of the nation: famous regions, unknown regions: cities, towns, farmland, desert, mountains, rivers, coastlines, plains, and forests, trying to capture the very essence of what makes America, leaving no region out. He may hate the politics of certain places, most notably the South, but his genuine enthusiasm and interest in the lands and people seems inexhaustible.
My favorite part in the entire book was the selection of letters sent to the New York Daily News, containing hate for the U.S., hate for the military, hate for the president, hate for Communists, and hate for the media, including the Daily News itself. It was every bit as vitriolic and idiotic as a public forum can ever be expected to be, and I loved all of it.
Yes, John Gunther used his fame and writing talents to market a progressive political manifesto disguised as a national profile, but it was done well. He also could of course not have covered everything and there is a wonderful miscellaneous cascade of topics in the conclusion in which he seemingly but elegantly throws in everything he wasn't able to cover, most notably popular culture. I've never seen a book about the U.S. with such ambitious scope done so well, and I doubt I ever will again and yet it couldn't have been written at a better time. There were people still alive from the Civil War, and from frontier times when this book was written, and yet here you already see the major global, economic, and ethnic issues that continue to shake the nation up to this day. Even if it only served as an insight into the mind of the American left of the 40s, and it certainly doesn't only do that, it would be a valuable historical work in of itself.
I do believe Gunther shared in this optimism, but he doesn't view the matter through rose tinted glasses. To his credit he's not afraid to see the problems with the nation, and yet perhaps to the lament of many readers, he won't stop offering his own solutions either. This book is thoroughly political and shamelessly partisan, but more on that later.
Gunther tends to start his books in the most prominent region, the one really shaking things up at the time. For the United States, I would've expected New York perhaps, but I find it telling that the journey begins in California. He then essentially goes clockwise around the nation, ending in the then newest states of the Southwest. The books mostly ignores covering the country as a whole, and it is absolutely driven by the nation's personalities and regions. John Gunther always enjoyed covering a nation's politics, but I found it striking that there is virtually no coverage of the federal government here. You get some focus on federal projects, such as rural electrification, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, but no chapter on Washington D.C. I think Gunther absolutely had enough fame to interview the president, but Truman only gets his focus because Gunther ran into him by chance when he was in Missouri, days before FDR's death made Truman president, and naturally enough the encounter is covered in the chapter on Missouri rather than as any effort to focus on the White House.
Gunther was very much a people's person, and he loved to cover nations through their leading individuals in very heavy detail. Here you will find extensive personal coverage of politicians, all of them prominent at the time but some more forgotten than others. As Gunther mentions in the end American politics is so dynamic that an unknown could be president in less than ten years. None of the personality sections were boring, Gunther has the talent of a novelist to make a reader interested in people that they've never heard of, but some sections can still nonetheless feel extraordinarily dated, and these are the sections that I often found myself skipping over.
You will find yourself learning about how Henry Kaiser, the California Magnate, whom the Hearst papers apparently slandered as a 'coddled New Deal pet', worked with unions to improve efficiency, trained steelyard workers to churn out an impressive amount of ships under government contract during the war, and how he provided healthcare for his workers in “one of the most notable experiments in group medicine ever launched in this country.” You will learn how Glen Taylor, a freshman Idaho senator, started off as an actor, and learned to play banjo and guitar to compete with musical entertainers during the Depression, ran for office, was thoroughly beaten more than once, and then finally won to bring progressive politics and a sense of humor to Washington. Perhaps you're beginning to notice a pattern here. You will also find a unflattering portrait of then governor of New York and former Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey. “A blunt fact about Mr. Dewey should be faced: it is that many people do not like him. He is unfortunately one of the least seductive personalities in public life.” As it happens Dewey was the favorite to be the Republican candidate again in '48. He was actually favored to win the presidency this time, so I can only assume Gunther was doing his duty for the Democratic campaign given the ultimate outcome, perhaps it helped. Partisan politics aside, these are all excellently written portraits and include many forgotten men, although some were so important nationally that they're still well known as historical figures. You get to see some future presidents make cameos here and there, the most poignant one being found in a footnote about Joe Kennedy. “One [Kennedy] son, John F. Kennedy, an attractive youngster of twenty nine, ran for Congress in 1946 and won...”
There is impressive coverage of seemingly all aspects of the American economy and the men and women who played roles in it at all levels. He describes the picturesque wheat fields he sees on the plane from Seattle to Spokane, “the whole rippling blanket underneath might have been the palette of an artist painting sunsets.” You will learn about wheat, corn, cotton, logging, salmon, steel silver, and oil, all in considerable detail. The massive industry of the nation gets coverage, everything from the steelyards of Pittsburgh to the automobile factories of Detroit, the Coca Cola plants of the South, to the newly formed nuclear industry. I enjoyed his description of going through the New York phone directory and listing a widely miscellaneous list of items for sale. Characteristically he's very much a fan of state involvement in industry. He calls the Tennessee Valley Authority “the greatest single American invention of this century, the biggest contribution the United States has yet made to society in the modern world.” To a lesser extent this adulation falls on the nation's other dams as well, but Gunther notes “above and beyond all this is something bigger; what really lies at the heart of the public-private power controversy is the major question: What kind of society is to be built in the United States?” He alludes to his answer at the beginning “The United States is statistically the richest country in the world. It is also a country with no national unemployment or health insurance.” For the record he also complains about the lack of a 'national planning agency.' At the end of the book he tells us a bit more: “The lesson of much in Europe is that if people have to choose between security and liberty, they will choose security. So at all costs the United States should avoid having to make this deplorable choice. Why not have both?...That so many Americans should fear government to the extent they do is an interesting phenomenon, since it means in a way that they fear themselves” To balance things out however I must point out that while covering Huey Long's benevolent but autocratic reign, he remarks that if fascism ever comes to America it will arrive “disguised as socialism.”
The war is over, but Gunther's foreign policy views loom strongly throughout the book,. He's as eager to intervene in foreign affairs as he is in the economy and isolationists are portrayed as secret Nazis at worst, naive buffoons at best. He certainly believes the U.S. Should play a role in the emerging global scene, most notably through the nascent United Nations, which in a picturesque detail many American cities even small towns struggled to win the location of, before it finally went to New York. Gunther quotes the liberal Republican Harold Stassen, champion of the United Nations, a man not afraid to say that “we do not subscribe to the extreme view of nationalist sovereignty, that we realize that neither this nation, nor any other nation, can be a law unto itself in the modern world, and that we are willing to delegate a limited portion of our national sovereignty to our United Nations organizations...true sovereignty rests in the people, and the people know that for their own future welfare they must exercise a portion of that sovereignty on a world level in place of a nationalist level”
Gunther is very progressive on race issues as well, and the problem of black-white relations looms prominently throughout the book even back in California. Gunther quotes the famed African-American scholar George Schuyler on the matter: “there is actually no Negro problem, there is definitely a Caucasian problem...The so called Negroes...have passed few if any Jim Crow laws...set up few white ghettoes, carried on no discriminatory practices against whites, and have not devoted centuries of propaganda to prove the superiority of blacks over whites.” Gunther is against discrimination and tries to explore and take apart the matter even taunting potential bigoted, Southern readers by emphasizing that yes indeed, there are places in the nation where blacks and whites play sports together, even get married. When Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall tries to reassure Gunther that there is no legal neighborhood segregation in Atlanta, Gunther is affronted and in the book berates the governor for not taking into account the problem of 'self segregation' as explained by sociologist Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish sociologist who basically wrote the definitive progressive textbook on American racial issues in the early 20th century, and whose views are essentially still in vogue today in the 21st century.
Gunther has a wonderful and memorable literary talent in capturing the regions which he visits. New York City is “the incomparable, the brilliant star city, the forty ninth state, a law unto itself, the Cyclopean paradox, the inferno with no out of bounds, the supreme expression of both the miseries and the splendors of contemporary civilization.” California is “the most spectacular and most diversified...so ripe, golden, yeasty, churning in flux...a world of its own...[containing] fruit, glaciers, sunshine, desert, and petroleum," and so he goes on in every corner of the nation: famous regions, unknown regions: cities, towns, farmland, desert, mountains, rivers, coastlines, plains, and forests, trying to capture the very essence of what makes America, leaving no region out. He may hate the politics of certain places, most notably the South, but his genuine enthusiasm and interest in the lands and people seems inexhaustible.
My favorite part in the entire book was the selection of letters sent to the New York Daily News, containing hate for the U.S., hate for the military, hate for the president, hate for Communists, and hate for the media, including the Daily News itself. It was every bit as vitriolic and idiotic as a public forum can ever be expected to be, and I loved all of it.
Yes, John Gunther used his fame and writing talents to market a progressive political manifesto disguised as a national profile, but it was done well. He also could of course not have covered everything and there is a wonderful miscellaneous cascade of topics in the conclusion in which he seemingly but elegantly throws in everything he wasn't able to cover, most notably popular culture. I've never seen a book about the U.S. with such ambitious scope done so well, and I doubt I ever will again and yet it couldn't have been written at a better time. There were people still alive from the Civil War, and from frontier times when this book was written, and yet here you already see the major global, economic, and ethnic issues that continue to shake the nation up to this day. Even if it only served as an insight into the mind of the American left of the 40s, and it certainly doesn't only do that, it would be a valuable historical work in of itself.
February 25, 2008
This is a state by state compilation of politics, history, culture, geography, odd ball facts and astute observations. Gunther captured the USA in a point in time. Some of his observations are as true now as they were then. One can get a sense for what is enduring and what is gone with the wind. It is a book that you can dabble in or read all the way through.
July 21, 2021
First half.
In the 1930s Gunther wrote a series of best selling "Inside " books, including Inside Europe. Inside Asia and inside Latin America. They were journalistic summaries of the politics, business, history, geography and personalities of each country in the area. He would visit, interview, research and boil a whole country down to a interesting chapter or two.
WW2 put an end to that kind of travel so Gunther decided to finally give his own country the same treatment. He published the first edition of this book in 1947. I have the 1951 revised version, which includes updates and discussions of the reactions in different states to what he said in the first edition.
I have had this big (1121 pages) book on my shelf for years and always indented to try it but never did. A couple of weeks ago the NYT Book Review had an article by Robert Gottlieb, the writer and editor. Gottlieb had just read it and he raved about it. It seemed time for me to give it a try.
The book is organized by regions and by state. The first half covers the west, the mountain states, the Midwest and New England.
Gunther was a wonderful journalist. He had the ability to clearly organize a huge amount of stuff without seeming stuffy. He had an eye for the perfect quote or the perfect wisecrack. He was not afraid of statistics about things like total pork production in Kansas or the number of French Canadians in Maine, but the numbers are there for a purpose and don't overwhelm.
In his review, Gottlieb ends up just listing interesting things he learned. I am embarrassed to admit that I can't think of a better way to give a feel of the pleasure of this 70 year old book.
The most powerful lobbyist in California was " a virtually unknown citizen named Arthur ("Artie") Samish a jovial 300 pound political manipulator.....who never got beyond seventh grade, started out as a clerk in the legislature, and by playing the shrewdest kind of politics gradually became dominant in representing....trucking, busses, beer, liquor and the race tracks."
Earl Warren was the Governor of California. He went on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was considered the evil genius behind the evils of 'The Warren Court". In 1951 Gunther says "Earl Warren is honest, likable and clean, he will never set the world on fire, or even make it smoke...he is a man who probably never bothered with abstract thought twice in his life." Gunther didn't hit that one well.
Albert Chow, the first president of San Francisco Chinese Six Companies, the clan organization, described himself as "a well known notary public and bon vivant".
In 1951 most first class hotels in LA or San Francisco did not admit black quests.
63% of American farms did not have electricity.
The Anacondas Copper Mining Company was one of the biggest companies in the world. It controlled the State of Montana. It dug the largest open pit mine which it proudly described as the largest hole ever dug by man. The company is now defunct and the mine is the largest superfund pollution site in America.
H. E Teschemaker was a delegate to the convention that organized the State of Wyoming. He once bragged. " I have enjoyed every sensation that human flesh is heir to, except childhood and the consolations of religion."
The Soo Canal, connecting Lake Superior to the other Great Lakes, carried more traffic than the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal combined.
Vocabulary word; "that antique fogram, Sewell L Avery". "Fogram" is an "Overly conservative person"
In Chicago "the downtown area is still bound by anachronistic elevated tracks". They are still there.
In Chicago in 1951 segregation was "the rule in most hotels, bowling alleys, taxis, taverns, and soda fountains except in the chain stores."
"Without Harvard, Boston would be no more than a provincial town." Harvard no longer has that hold over Boston.
In 1946 the municipal censor in Boston ordered the genteel play "Life With Father" to change the exclamation "Oh, God!" to "Oh Fudge!"
The book also brings to mind big issues. In each state Gunther asks, who has the power? He profiles the industrialist and bankers who wield control. He discusses the labor leaders and reformers. He names the lobbyist and wheeler dealers who work secretly.
There is very little of this type of reporting these days. Reporters focus on the surface stuff. A gaffe in a speech, somebody caught cheating on his wife, a symbolic fight over the flag, or a statute. We know celebrity rich guys who run Facebook, Google or Amazon but how many people know the name of the CEO of the most powerful company in their state of the leader of the AFL/CIO in their state?
That type of reporting and analysis was more common 70 years ago and Gunther is very good at it.
The book triggered all kinds of thoughts, questions and suggestions. It is a good book to read with Google open. I kept checking to find out what happened to people or get more about casual references by Gunther. I am not surprised this was a bestseller in 1947 and 1951.
I suspect I will read the second half pretty soon.
In the 1930s Gunther wrote a series of best selling "Inside " books, including Inside Europe. Inside Asia and inside Latin America. They were journalistic summaries of the politics, business, history, geography and personalities of each country in the area. He would visit, interview, research and boil a whole country down to a interesting chapter or two.
WW2 put an end to that kind of travel so Gunther decided to finally give his own country the same treatment. He published the first edition of this book in 1947. I have the 1951 revised version, which includes updates and discussions of the reactions in different states to what he said in the first edition.
I have had this big (1121 pages) book on my shelf for years and always indented to try it but never did. A couple of weeks ago the NYT Book Review had an article by Robert Gottlieb, the writer and editor. Gottlieb had just read it and he raved about it. It seemed time for me to give it a try.
The book is organized by regions and by state. The first half covers the west, the mountain states, the Midwest and New England.
Gunther was a wonderful journalist. He had the ability to clearly organize a huge amount of stuff without seeming stuffy. He had an eye for the perfect quote or the perfect wisecrack. He was not afraid of statistics about things like total pork production in Kansas or the number of French Canadians in Maine, but the numbers are there for a purpose and don't overwhelm.
In his review, Gottlieb ends up just listing interesting things he learned. I am embarrassed to admit that I can't think of a better way to give a feel of the pleasure of this 70 year old book.
The most powerful lobbyist in California was " a virtually unknown citizen named Arthur ("Artie") Samish a jovial 300 pound political manipulator.....who never got beyond seventh grade, started out as a clerk in the legislature, and by playing the shrewdest kind of politics gradually became dominant in representing....trucking, busses, beer, liquor and the race tracks."
Earl Warren was the Governor of California. He went on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was considered the evil genius behind the evils of 'The Warren Court". In 1951 Gunther says "Earl Warren is honest, likable and clean, he will never set the world on fire, or even make it smoke...he is a man who probably never bothered with abstract thought twice in his life." Gunther didn't hit that one well.
Albert Chow, the first president of San Francisco Chinese Six Companies, the clan organization, described himself as "a well known notary public and bon vivant".
In 1951 most first class hotels in LA or San Francisco did not admit black quests.
63% of American farms did not have electricity.
The Anacondas Copper Mining Company was one of the biggest companies in the world. It controlled the State of Montana. It dug the largest open pit mine which it proudly described as the largest hole ever dug by man. The company is now defunct and the mine is the largest superfund pollution site in America.
H. E Teschemaker was a delegate to the convention that organized the State of Wyoming. He once bragged. " I have enjoyed every sensation that human flesh is heir to, except childhood and the consolations of religion."
The Soo Canal, connecting Lake Superior to the other Great Lakes, carried more traffic than the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal combined.
Vocabulary word; "that antique fogram, Sewell L Avery". "Fogram" is an "Overly conservative person"
In Chicago "the downtown area is still bound by anachronistic elevated tracks". They are still there.
In Chicago in 1951 segregation was "the rule in most hotels, bowling alleys, taxis, taverns, and soda fountains except in the chain stores."
"Without Harvard, Boston would be no more than a provincial town." Harvard no longer has that hold over Boston.
In 1946 the municipal censor in Boston ordered the genteel play "Life With Father" to change the exclamation "Oh, God!" to "Oh Fudge!"
The book also brings to mind big issues. In each state Gunther asks, who has the power? He profiles the industrialist and bankers who wield control. He discusses the labor leaders and reformers. He names the lobbyist and wheeler dealers who work secretly.
There is very little of this type of reporting these days. Reporters focus on the surface stuff. A gaffe in a speech, somebody caught cheating on his wife, a symbolic fight over the flag, or a statute. We know celebrity rich guys who run Facebook, Google or Amazon but how many people know the name of the CEO of the most powerful company in their state of the leader of the AFL/CIO in their state?
That type of reporting and analysis was more common 70 years ago and Gunther is very good at it.
The book triggered all kinds of thoughts, questions and suggestions. It is a good book to read with Google open. I kept checking to find out what happened to people or get more about casual references by Gunther. I am not surprised this was a bestseller in 1947 and 1951.
I suspect I will read the second half pretty soon.
August 2, 2008
What I liked best about this book is that it offers a snapshot of late 1940s America--it's attitudes and politics. One of my favorite books by this author is Death Be Not Proud.
March 24, 2023
This is an important book even though it was published over 70 years ago. I say it is important because we cannot understand why we are where we are today in the US in terms of politics, civil rights, women's status and economics unless we are clearly informed about our past. The author traveled through the 48 states at the end of WWII and observed conditions in each state and interviewed the movers and shakers in each state. I will say there are a lot of ho hum interludes and much reporting that is forgettable. But his analysis of the conditions in some sections of this country will almost light your hair on fire in this day and age. Although he is clearly liberal, the overt racism on display is awful. Assumptions about women are striking. The reader will constantly measure how far we have come, and recognize the almost unbearable challenges ahead. This is not an amusing book but it is instructive.
August 10, 2021
I did not read the entire book but the sections on the states I knew. I had recently learned about this work from another book review and thought I would give it a try. The author was a journalist and reports on the states as he traveled through in the late 1940's Remarkable how little things have changed.
September 12, 2007
Gunther's approach to understanding post war America is to talk to as many politicians and "leaders" in every state. To understand labor and industry in a particular state, he spoke with the union leaders and industrial leaders of that state. He is a journalist by trade, which makes for the fact-heaviness of his profiles of the states, but he is only seeing the states from a white male perspective, which is unsatisfying to the modern reader (or at least to me).
The facts he collects can be fascinating, especially the chart in the very beginning where he lists the number of lynchings in each state for the year. But there is something human missing from his work. He calls Pittsburgh a dirty, ugly town (even I can admit the truth in this statement for 1946), but does not ask why people would choose to make their lives there despite the horrendous conditions. The failure of looking only at "leaders" and politicians is that it does not say anything about "daily life" in the places he examined. Also, the only women discussed are the wives of politicians- again, unsatisfying.
It is a classic book, and it was a best seller that has been reprinted numerous times. I think it is entertaining in the olde-tyme guide booke way, but absolutely must be understood within its context and examined with a critical eye.
The facts he collects can be fascinating, especially the chart in the very beginning where he lists the number of lynchings in each state for the year. But there is something human missing from his work. He calls Pittsburgh a dirty, ugly town (even I can admit the truth in this statement for 1946), but does not ask why people would choose to make their lives there despite the horrendous conditions. The failure of looking only at "leaders" and politicians is that it does not say anything about "daily life" in the places he examined. Also, the only women discussed are the wives of politicians- again, unsatisfying.
It is a classic book, and it was a best seller that has been reprinted numerous times. I think it is entertaining in the olde-tyme guide booke way, but absolutely must be understood within its context and examined with a critical eye.
June 12, 2009
fascinating read, definitely a biased point of view, from a reporter in the '40's. I am having a great time with this book so far. The facts and statistics alone definitely give some perspective on how life in the U.S. was when my father was born.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews