I am just finishing Understanding America. I found the essays uneven and strangely out of date. Let me start off with a few quibbles.
For one thing, there is no essay on communications and the Internet. How can one possibly understand America over the past 30 years without talking about Silicon Valley, the Internet, or mobile communications? Do all these guys come from Princeton, or something?
For another, the essay on the economy makes little mention of business, of the catastrophic de-industrialization of America, and the importance of WAL-MART. Benjamin Friedman puts me to sleep at the best of times, but his essay in this collection is truly one for the ages...or the ageless, take your choice. He rambled through the various Federal agencies that were supposed to protect investors, consumers, and the public, but didn't seem to find fault with any of them. For a good discussion of just how crappy these agencies are I highly recommend "The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash," by Charles R. Morris.
There is a splendid discussion of the drug culture, but nothing mentioned about America's gambling culture, Las Vegas, and the obsession with Wall Street.
No inclusive book about America today, I think, should omit the frequent abuses of executive power I have seen in my lifetime. Whether Nixon's abuses, or Dick Cheney's complicity in the policy of torturing "detainees" at Guantanamo Bay, or Clinton's behaviour with subordinates. Not to mention the litany of sexual scandals by members of Congress, Governors, you name it. Without this stuff, Meet the Press" just doesn't make any sense at all.
The first half of the book barely kept me awake. But it really picked up on the issue of immigration (which is actually handled better in "Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them," by Phillipe Legrain).
The essay which really woke me up was Orlando Patterson's on the state of black people in America today. His conclusion was that black people, and particularly black single mothers, are among the most socially isolated in America. That de-segregation of the schools never worked. That upward mobility is not generally available to poor blacks. Patterson is best known for his classic "Slavery and Social Death" which I still consider one of the finest books I have ever read.
Other essays I enjoyed include that on the mess that primary education has become, the challenges of funding health care, and the essay on the growing income inequality.
A minor disclaimer here: I am Canadian viewing from the outside, although I love American history, past and present. I really do like America. It makes great reading. It can't be any fun trying to run America. And this book is a great reminder of how difficult it is.
