The Day America Told the Truth: What People Really Believe About Everything That Really Matters [Audio Cassette]

James Patterson (Author), Peter Kim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1991

The result of a national survey on private morals, this look at America's deepest secrets reveals shocking confessions by Americans about their views on sex, crime, punishment, rape, the death penalty, and more. Reprint. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Harper Audio (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559944897
• ISBN-13: 978-1559944892
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #821,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The day Americal Told the Truth, February 5, 2000

By 

Annie Beam (Housewife, Southern California U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day America Told the Truth (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have a wonderful time with this book. I got mine, per the Oprah Winfrey shows discussion of it, and found the book to not only be informative, on the nature of the human animal, but to provide many insights into people's behavior. It discusses the inner most workings of people minds, hopes, belief systems, in it are tests you can take, about how moral, or "good" or truthful, or honest you and your friends are.

Some of the contents are rated X, as far as some "confessions" of the interviewees, and vary from adultery, to beastiality. Not for the faint. The geographic nature of the book breaks the United states into segments, and gives an interesting picture to how the people in the "Bible Belt" relate to the world around them differently than say the people in the "Pac Rim".

This book also works as an Ice breaker, party mixer, truth or dare game provoker, and jumps starts idle conversations. I have become more out going and find the fascinations people have about this books contents leads to hours of fun, and interesting exchanges of ideas.I highly recommend it for Tea parties, Socials, and other multi-personal events. Hours of enjoyable reading, discovering some of the humorous to darker secrets of our fellow "John Q. Public" A terrific read.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Snapshot of Time, December 29, 2002

By 

Benjamin Pawlik (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day America Told the Truth (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

It has been over a decade since the authors captured this snapshot of American thoughts and attitudes, and after rediscovering this book at the library I was curious whether all of the "revelations" identified in the book have held up. What struck me the most was how fleeting many of the attitudes identified were (and are), which are outside of the core ways we define ourselves - morality, values, and private lives. A re-read of this book makes me wonder whether there were some flaws in the initial data gathering which "dates" the results (such as Ch 32 which focus' on Japan vs. America), or the book truly reflects our preoccupation with the current issues of the time (such as Ch 15 Violence in America).

With these thoughts, and since this book predates a multitude of changes in the 90's through today (crime rate reduction, Clinton years, deficit reduction, and of course 9/11), revelations such as "Does America have moral leadership?", "Are the Japanese superior to Americans?", and "Do we still see ourselves as Number 1?" appear to ring somewhat hollow as concerns of today - but maybe they have not fully gone away. The book retains its currency because, even in the midst of the changes which occurred in the last decade, the thoughts and attitudes in the book represent the foundation upon which today's attitudes and values derive. It remains fascinating reading, and leads the reader to examine his own core values and how they may have changes with time.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening, Insightful, and Most of All Interesting., May 27, 2007

By 

K. L. Liles (Aiken, South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day America Told the Truth: What People Really Believe About Everything That Really Matters (Hardcover)

This book has been a staple for me since I read it some 3 years ago. The information that it provides into the thoughts, actions, and behavior of Americans is most interesting. I am a firm believer that America is facing many problems associated with integrity and honesty. It is well recognized that we are currently a nation without true leaders. Children have no heroes, except those who have died and gone many years ago. Even worse is that we have little trust in those who we should most respect and emulate- the president, congressmen, lawyers, etc. This is an eye-opener and I highly recommend it to anyone interesting in our current 'climate' and psychology in general.