Booknotes on American Character: People, Politics, and Conflict in American History [Hardcover]

Brian Lamb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1586482327 | ISBN-13: 978-1586482329 | Edition: 1

The bestselling Booknotes series celebrates C-SPAN's 25th anniversary with a new collection examining our country and its character. Over the past twenty-five years, C-SPAN has established itself as a national treasure. And Booknotes , the flagship of its book programming, has become the premier place to see serious, thoughtful nonfiction get its television due. Over the past fifteen years, Brian Lamb, the CEO of C-SPAN and host of Booknotes , has interviewed 765 authors on the program, and these deep and wide-ranging interviews have been the basis for three bestselling Booknotes books. Now, in a new collection, Booknotes: On American Character , Lamb has selected seventy original pieces that reveal something about America: the nation's people, history, and character. Here are biographies of artists, businessmen, politicians, and inventors; stories of events famous, infamous, and less well-known in the nation's history; a look at how politics works in America and how the nation responds to conflict. Our leading historians, journalists, and public figures draw from a diverse set of sources to examine what kind of nation and people we are. The result is a valuable addition to the Booknotes legacy and a welcome read for any fan of the program.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This rather desultory anthology gathers some 72 sessions of C-SPAN’s popular author-interview series, this time covering prominent nonfiction books on American history. As in the three previous Booknotes anthologies, the interviews are edited to remove host Lamb’s side of the dialogue; at their best, they read like chatty, informal essays. But the fact remains that no amount of editing can impart to conversational exchanges the kind of structure, focus and polish that makes an essay readable. In consequence, these pieces—lacking the orienting and framing clues that the host’s questions provide to the TV audience—tend to lurch from one topic to another, rarely settling down to a coherent theme. It doesn’t help that so many of the books discussed are biographies, which can give rise to perfunctory first-he-did-this-and-then-he-did-that narrative rehashes. The most coherent and interesting pieces are the polemical ones, like Victor Davis Hanson’s diatribe against American immigration policy and James Loewen’s critique of high school American history texts, both of which have the vigorous drive of an oft-rehearsed stump speech. But none of them really surmounts the problem that, no matter how lively it may sound on TV, conversational English can be very tedious to read—coarse and flat, stripped of inflection and rhythm, full of stammering repetitions and the sort of vivacious colloquialism ("For example, Union Station in Washington D. C., in 1909, she busted up a saloon and who knows? I’m not sure why she did that" blurts Fran Grace about temperance crusader Carrie Nation) that comes off as discombobulated rambling on the page. There are eminent personages aplenty in here, but they’re not shown in their best light.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

During the last 15 years, Lamb has been the host of C-SPAN's Booknotes and has interviewed more than 750 authors of nonfiction books. In this new collection, Lamb has selected 72 original pieces from these interviews and has edited them into essays. Their topics span 225 years of the American experience. They include Michael Moore (views from the Left), Ann Coulter (views from the Right), Michael Korda (memoirs of Presidents Reagan and Nixon), Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (American multiculturalism), Sandra Day O'Connor (the early years of the first female justice), Isaac Stern (his life and music), David Von Drehle (the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire), and Richard Lingeman (Sinclair Lewis). The book is divided into sections entitled "The Nation's Leaders," "Social and Political Movements in America," "America at War," "A Nation of Law and Order," "American Inventors and Businessmen," and "Our Cultural Heritage." Readers who watch Lamb's engrossing TV interviews will welcome the book. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 591 pages
• Publisher: Perseus Press; 1 edition (March 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586482327
• ISBN-13: 978-1586482329
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Accessible History, April 8, 2004

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Booknotes on American Character: People, Politics, and Conflict in American History (Hardcover)

This is the best of the Booknotes books yet. In a series of short chapters drawn from interviews on C-Span's Booknotes program, Brian Lamb and the many authors provide absorbing insights into American history. Some of the choices are a bit jarring (I would certainly not have chosen to begin such a thoughtful book with excerpts from Ann Coulter and Michael Moore) but all of them are provocative and ultimately thought provoking. This is a book to keep at hand and savor for months if not years.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moments, Issues and People who Shape American History, September 27, 2004

By 

Craig L. Howe "The Pointed Pundit" (Darien, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Booknotes on American Character: People, Politics, and Conflict in American History (Hardcover)

To hear commentators, one would believe our country has never been more divided. As this book demonstrates, the United States has a long history of highly partisan, often bitter and violent politics.

This book, the third in a series, offers the thoughts of 78 contemporary nonfiction writers whose topics span more than 225 years of American History. These essays were drawn from the author's original, thoughtful interviews on C-Span's Booknotes

Controversy is a common theme in American History. Writer Roy Morris recounts the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876, a contest which dragged on for four months of infighting and maneuvering. Hayes eventually took the oath of office at night to avoid violence.

On the other hand, Author Rich Perlstein writes about the rise of modern conservatism. The lingering memory of many of the LBJ - Barry Goldwater campaign was how hated the conservative was. Yet LBJ's support proved to be widespread but thin.

It contains essays on American exceptionalism and the leaders who promoted it. There are essays on American Ingenuity and technological prowess. Some authors demonstrate the benefits of American capitalism; others chronicle its downside.

On American Character is a great addition to the Booknotes series. It is a must read for any fan of the program and those interested in great historical moments, issues and the people who shaped our country.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful Collection, March 22, 2004

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Booknotes on American Character: People, Politics, and Conflict in American History (Hardcover)

A wonderful collection of short articles and essays on the essentially American items from political biography to culture, politics and history. This wonderful study opens with short talking points by Ann Coulter and Michael Moore on the right and left in America. Most of these exerts are from talks by people describing their books they have written. Thus comments are made on people from Ben Franklin to the War in Vietnam. A wonderful collection in a beautiful binding, an essential piece for any Americana book shelf.

Seth J. Frantzman