Customer Reviews

Overrated/Underrated

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From time to time, American Heritage magazine asks a group of authors to name the person or thing that is most overrated and most underrated in each author's field of expertise. "Overrated/Underrated" assembles three years worth of answers to those questions, and the result is a quick and enjoyable read.

Almost everyone has heard of the famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart, but far fewer know of Harriet Quimby, a flamboyant beauty who was the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel. When someone asks "who is the most famous sex symbol of the twentieth century?", Marilyn Monroe is a safe bet for the answer--but what about Donna Reed, named by one author as the most underrated sex symbol of her time? And what about Robert E. Lee--was he the great strategist that history makes him out to be, or was he really "the original Teflon general"?

Overrated/Underrated pillories many icons and offers substitutes to replace them--as a result, it's bound to irritate readers, but that's half the fun. And since each article is fairly short, the book can easily be interrupted and put aside (thus making it ideal for airplane travel).

This great concept (which is clever when published in magazine form) has not been expanded at all in book form. Instead the book is just made up of old magazine clips, some of which are only a few sentences long. That leaves an awful lot of white space on the pages!

In many of the cases the writers could not truly answer the question of what's the most overrated and underrated, so they "cheat" by naming the same thing to both categories, naming multiple winners or (in one case) not naming anything at all! Why didn't the publisher push to have the magazine pieces expanded and better explained? Or created some new pieces that were more introspective.

As is it reads like little magazine clippings, which are sometimes clever but always leave you wanting more.

This delightful book from American Heritage is a real treat, educating, entertaining and challenging the reader all at the same time. The book's sub-title, "100 experts topple the icons and champion the slighted," aptly summarizes the book's contents as authors, columnists, editors and what-not take on various subjects and tell us why it was given too much credit or not enough.

Why, for instance, was Marilyn Monroe the most overrated Sex Symbol and Donna Reed, the most underrated. Donna Reed!?! Why is meatloaf such an overrated Traditional Dish and the lowly peanut butter and jelly sandwich underrated? Why is the most underrated Rock Band Creedence Clearwater? And who is the most overrated Rock Band? Wait for it! The Beatles! Read this book and learn why!

More serious topics such as Founding Fathers, Presidents, Medical Breakthroughs and Events of the 20th Century get their comeuppenace as well in pithy, humorous and thoughtful comments from the likes of John Kenneth Galbraith, Caleb Carr, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Tom Wicker.

Whether you read this book from cover to cover or jump in at random, you will enjoy it no end. It's a hoot!