America and Americans brings together a text by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck and pictures by 55 promntne contemporary photographers, to render on a grand scale the many faces of the United States, its scenic beauty as well as its human variousness, and above all it vitality.
John Steinbeck describes America and Americans as "a book of opinions, unashamed and individual," and the text he has written for it is nothing if not opinionated - grandly so. He deals unsparingly, though with humor and affection and in his own matchless vein of anecdote, with America as he sees it: with its natural wealth and its moral and political shortcomings; with a gallery of American types - heroes, eccentrics, Indians, teen-agers, misguided parents, old people; with the paradoxes of America's history and the promise of its future. His book-length text is an eloquent statement of prejudice - one man's prejudice in favor of his native land - "inspired," as he says, "by curiousity, impatience, some anger, and a passionate love of America and the Americans."
The 105 illustrations that accompany the text are by a distinguished roster of photographers th includes Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Eliot Elisofon, Andreas Feininger, Ernst Haas, Gordon Parks, and others listed on the back of the jacket. These are also opinions, to use Steinbeck's term, each one reflecting the artist's own individual sense of America.
The pictures are of virtually every state in the union, and show the wonder and diversity of the American continent6: the immense sweep of the land, from Maine to Hawaii and from Alaska to Florida, the subtle and violent contrasts of its teeming cities and spacious rural landscapes, its many ethnic groups, its architecture and historic monuments, its industries and culture, its people at work and at play.
Just as John Steinbeck's text could have been written only of a country such as this ...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still true today - unfortunately,
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This review is from: America and Americans (Hardcover)
I picked up this book at a sale and was intrigued by it right away. It was written in 1966 and the photos are so interesting to look at. But, the best part - every single one of his essays in the book is still relevant today. Which is not a good thing. It really made me stop and think about how far we haven't come as a nation - even though we think we're leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. We are a selfish group of people, we contradict most of what we say and do, and we are blind (or look the other way) to many of our actions.I really was appalled by the truth in which he spoke. I have a new found respect for Mr. John Steinbeck - not only as a writer, but as a politically aware individual.
5.0 out of 5 stars
an unusual and excellent steinbeck resource,
This review is from: America and Americans (Mass Market Paperback)
this is an interesting and unusual compilation of Steinbeck's periodical writings, otherwise not readily available, which I found to be very insightful regarding the Salinas community's odd dislike of Steinbeck. While the Grapes of Wrath were hardly boosterism for California growers and law enforcement, some of these articles are almost rabid in their intensity and even more poignant in their journalism. This is a really useful resource for anyone interested in getting a wider sense of Steinbeck's thinking and development.
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