Twenty-five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity Paperback – May 24, 2011

Thomas C. Foster reviews a selected canon of American literature. The book gives the impression of an expert who has thought out his ideas from scratch. There is no appeal to academic theory. Foster focuses on the influences that these classic books had on later writers. With each book, he discusses the interplay between the book and the American scene, and American history.He does not indiscriminately uphold the reviewed books as great. For example, he dislikes "The Scarlet Letter."Foster writes with humor and energy, keeping the book interesting. This is not a plodding textbook.

Awesome book. I liked the choices he selected and I really appreciated the fact that Dr. Foster makes it clear that this is just "a list" and not "the list" of books that shaped America. Nicely written, easy to read, and for anyone who knows him, Dr. Foster's voice is clear on each page.

And cheap. You know it's like with school materials you usually don't ever want to pay any more than half of the retail price and the price of this book ( given the quality as well ) definitely exceeded that requirement.

Grea book for anyone interested in the study of literature. The book is a guide to further exploration.

This book ws given as a gift. It arrived to us a perfect shape. However, we haven't heard whether it was interesting to the reader or not.

I have read several books by this author. I did not enjoy this one like I did his other books. The author provided a good summary of each novel. I felt the author did not do a good job of explaining why these novels shaped America.

Horrible! How ironic that a book on books that shaped America can be so bad. This is drivel, written at a high school level, and seems like it was a lecture by a prof trying to be funny turned into a book. AVOID!

Precisely as advertised

A superb and inspiring overview, written in an entertaining and perceptive manner. I enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

"Twenty-five books that shaped America" ist wie der Name schon sagt eine persönliche Liste der 25 einflussreichsten Werke aus Amerika. Darunter finden sich Klassiker, wie zum Beispiel "Moby Dick" und "The Great Gatsby", aber auch weniger bekannte Publikationen wie "Leaves of Grass".Musste das Buch für ein Seminar meines Studiums lesen um einen besseren Gesamteindruck der amerikanischen Literatur und Kultur zu bekommen, was diese Sammlung auch wirklich schafft. Hab es genossen und einige Werke der Liste dann sogleich verschlungen. ;)