or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
60 used & new from $2.80

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
John Waynes America
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

John Waynes America (Paperback)

~ Garry Wills (Author) "JOHN WAYNE, like Ronald Reagan (born four years after him), was part of Iowa's great exodus to California..." (more)
Key Phrases: Red River, John Ford, World War (more...)
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

List Price: $24.95
Price: $22.45 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $2.50 (10%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Friday, November 13? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
20 new from $6.92 40 used from $2.80

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Paperback $22.45 $6.92 $2.80

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Achieving Our Country : Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America by Richard Rorty

John Waynes America + Achieving Our Country : Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America

Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America

by Richard Slotkin
3.8 out of 5 stars (5)  $31.45
John Wayne : The Man Behind the Myth

John Wayne : The Man Behind the Myth

by Michael Munn
4.2 out of 5 stars (6)  $5.01
Republic.com 2.0

Republic.com 2.0

by Cass R. Sunstein
$14.36
The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West

The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West

by Patricia Nelson Limerick
3.8 out of 5 stars (12)  $12.21
Rio Bravo (BFI Film Classics)

Rio Bravo (BFI Film Classics)

by Robin Wood
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $14.95
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Review

...I hope this new book will find its way into the hands of those who are ready to think seriously about a pivotal figure in our culture, a figure who was a great star and a flawed man. -- The New York Times Book Review, Molly Haskell

Mark Feener The Boston Globe No one has ever written better about the cultural ideology of John Wayne's career than Garry Willis does here. -- Review


Review

Steve NealChicago Sun TimesA fascinating and insightful study about the making of an American myth. Of more than a dozen books about Wayne, John Wayne's America is by far the best; it is a fresh and original interpretation of his film career and of his impact on American culture.

Dennis McLellanLos Angeles TimesA stunning book...essential reading for anyone interested in Wayne and popular culture.

Molly HaskellThe New York Times Book ReviewI hope this new book will find its way into the hands of those who are ready to think seriously about a pivotal figure in our culture, a figure who was a great star and a flawed man.

Mark FeenerThe Boston GlobeNo one has ever written better about the cultural ideology of John Wayne's career than Garry Willis does here.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Touchstone Ed edition (March 2, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684838834
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684838830
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #689,272 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Inside This Book (learn more)



Books on Related Topics (learn more)


Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great for both fans and anti-fans of The Duke, March 5, 1998
By Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
What a super book! There are multiple levels to this book, and one can love all or only a few of them. On one level, the book is an analysis of the career of John Wayne the movie star (as opposed to John Wayne the private individual, though the two cannot be completely separated). So you can enjoy learning about Wayne's days at Columbia pictures, or his relationship with Yakima Canutt, or the formative influence of Harry Carey, or Wayne's film with and connection to John Ford and Howard Hawks. On another level, the book contains brilliant discussions on a number of the important films in Wayne's career, like STAGECOACH or my favorite Wayne and John Ford film THE SEARCHERS. On another level, the book contains marvelous socio-political analysis of the function the concept of John Wayne plays in American life. And on yet another level the book is an essay within cultural studies. One has to admire the many areas and subjects that Wills handles with ease.

My favorite parts of the book were those that dealt with the mythmaking that went into the creation of "John Wayne," the symbol of everything best about America and those dealing with his films and relationship with John Ford. Although extreme fans of Wayne may be somewhat offended by some parts of the book (e.g., Wayne's stringent avoidance of military service in WW II and the misinformation about his early life, such as his being a potential football star felled by an injury, when in fact he was dismissed from the USC football team for not being very good), I think everyone will come away from it having a better sense not only Wayne's shortcomings but his very real accomplishments. A fine book in every way.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars King of books on Duke, September 2, 1998
By Bryan Moore (Jonesboro, AR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Anyone even remotely interested in John Wayne, John Ford, Westerns, or pop culture in general might want to add this fine book to their "to read" list. While Wills's book is full of biographical info. and is arranged (more or less) chronologically, it is much more concerned with tracing the formation of a truly larger-than-life public image. One of Wills's purposes is to debunk some of the myths that have clouded the public's view of (the former) Marion Morrison, but he clearly admires Wayne as a unique, commanding presence on the screen. Those who stubbornly refuse to think of Wayne as anything other than a manly, gun-loving superpatriot might want to steer clear. But most thinking people are more likely to be intrigued, even fascinated. The author's reading of Wayne--his life and films (THE BIG TRAIL, STAGECOACH, RED RIVER, and TURE GRIT in particular)--is always on target and lucid. While I don't recall disagreeing with Wills on a single critical point, I occasionally grew tired of his painstaking analysis of John Ford's background and various relationships and how they were inserted into his films. I realize that Ford played a huge role in the mythologizing of John Wayne, but I--again, occasionally--found myself asking whether Wills had lost his focus. Even so, the Ford sections are interesting; for example, I had no idea that he was such a sadist and fabricator. Over the course of the book Wills indicates that Ford was a complicated man, while Wayne was rather simple ("Wayne couldn't even spell [the word] politics," Henry Fonda says in one of the book's quotations). Though not perfect (I'd give it a 4 1/2 if I could), this is a great, fun book on a great (and overdue) subject.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Spotty Trail, August 22, 2001
By Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is a maddening book, so full of promise it never really delivers on. Yet I've read it twice, something I don't usually do. Though some might argue, the subject is an important one: the mythic stature of John Wayne as American hero. Given his unparalleled popularity over the years, Wayne's elevation poses some serious questions. Namely, how did this fame come about, and what does the elevation of a cowboy actor to national icon reveal about ourselves. Understanding this revered status should at least tell us something about the mind-set of American men, if not women (Wayne has never been as popular with the latter as with the former, Wills observes). I think it helps to get at the way Wills presents the Wayne phenomenon to target three levels.

First, there is Wayne the person, the man. Wills doesn't devote much space to this level, though the book's subtitle, i.e. "The Politics of Celebrity", might suggest otherwise. Very little is presented of Wayne's personal life or controversial political stances. Most of what is presented are efforts to either debunk popular fictions from the early years, or to pass along opinions of others, which about the man are usually unflattering, (Ford's disapproval of Wayne's lack of war service). Clearly the author believes Wayne's mythic status comes from the screen and not from the private individual.

The second level is Wayne the actor, the commanding screen presence. Despite many insights along the way, Wills falters badly by spending way too much time on seemingly irrelevant details of John Ford's personality and film style, many of which (the diagrams of seating arrangements in "Stagecoach", for example), shed no light on Wayne the actor. Wills' s preoccupation with Ford to the exclusion of Wayne is a serious defect, which may imply that the author found Ford the more compelling of the two, and could not restrain himself. Yet it is not Ford who is enshrined in the national consciousness, it is Wayne.

The third level is the most important: Wayne the mythic figure, the mirror in which we catch our own reflection. Here Wills both succeeds and fails. He succeeds by linking the Wayne figure with some of our most enduring national myths: unbounded western horizons, uncorrupted primitive, Jeffersonian ideal. But here in the book's last chapter, which should bring together the preceding 300 pages but which is only 12 pages long, there is no real synthesis of what has gone before. There is no effort at showing how, despite the many pages given over to him, Ford' romanticized vision of the Old West shapes the Wayne myth, or how that same vision embodies enduring national myths, or how to a lesser degree Hawk's vision taps into those same legends through the Wayne figure. In short, Wills fails at this crucial third stage to adequately fill in the blanks between Wayne the actor and Wayne the myth.

I get the feeling the author intended a deeper work than is there in the result, but instead got sidetracked on underdeveloped details that end up shedding little light on the Wayne phenomenon. Too bad, because there is an important project still unfulfilled. Certainly Wills has the skills to bring it off. I only wish he had.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME !!!
THIS IS THE WORST BOOK IVE READ IN YEARS. GARRY WILLS BABBLES ON AND ON AND ON. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY ON THIS P.O.S. Read more
Published 22 months ago by kevin clement

3.0 out of 5 stars Long on movie-making, short on America
Anyone seriously interested in John Wayne's position as America's icon needs to read this book, which is filled with information about the making of his films and the evolution of... Read more
Published on June 17, 2006 by moose/squirrel

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost makes it!
I enjoyed the book to some extent but I have a few problems with it. Too often I get the feeling that Wills is driving a tack with a sledge hammer. Read more
Published on March 6, 2006 by Charles Wilder

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Backgound
John Wayne's America is based on the figure John Wayne. Garry Wills has put so much backgound into this book that it really blowns u away. Read more
Published on December 6, 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh look at a great Actor
This book is essentially a discussion about an idea.

American values, & culture came to be influenced by the films & film roles of John Wayne, & the author explores... Read more

Published on September 29, 2000 by Kiril G. Kundurazieff

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as satisfying as the OTHER book
I just got done reading BOTH recent books on Wayne (this by Wills, the other by Olson & Roberts) and I have to say whilst Wills' was the more eloquent and thought-provoking,... Read more
Published on September 5, 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant new thinking on the cowboy myth
Wills has always brought his classicist's training to timely exegesis of the American zeitgeist. He convincingly argues that Wayne is not the absurd figure that 60s and 70s Baby... Read more
Published on July 13, 2000 by Susan Zakin

3.0 out of 5 stars Sure, it was an interesting read, but...
I wish Wills would write (say that 5X fast) separate books on (a) Wayne's popularity; (b) his life; (c) his movies; and (d) John Ford, Howard Hawks, Harry Carey, Yak Canutt, et... Read more
Published on June 6, 2000

2.0 out of 5 stars Little to do about an important topic
There is an excellent essay hidden away in this book. The question is does one have the time to search it out? Read more
Published on February 12, 2000 by Ian Muldoon

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a typical biography
Heard the taped version of John Wayne's America by Gary Wills . . . this was not a typical biography . . . Read more
Published on January 27, 2000 by Blaine Greenfield

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.