or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
65 used & new from $3.96

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation
 
 

One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

List Price: $26.95
Price: $17.79 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $9.16 (34%)
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 Tuesday, November 17? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
31 new from $8.91 33 used from $3.96 1 collectible from $26.95

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Kindle Edition, June 3, 2008 $9.99 -- --
  Hardcover, June 2, 2008 $17.79 $8.91 $3.96
  Paperback, November 16, 2009 $10.80 $10.80 --

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball by George F. Will

One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation + Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball
  • This item: One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation by George F. Will

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball by George F. Will

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Statecraft as Soulcraft

Statecraft as Soulcraft

by George F. Will
3.5 out of 5 stars (6)  $13.45
The WOVEN FIGURE : CONSERVATISM AND AMERICA'S FABRIC

The WOVEN FIGURE : CONSERVATISM AND AMERICA'S FABRIC

by George F. Will
3.6 out of 5 stars (9)  $24.95
Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy

Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy

by George F. Will
3.3 out of 5 stars (3)  $17.05
With a Happy Eye, but... : America and the World, 1997--2002

With a Happy Eye, but... : America and the World, 1997--2002

by George F. Will
3.6 out of 5 stars (11)  $14.04
Bunts

Bunts

by George F. Will
4.1 out of 5 stars (26)  $11.97
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pulitzer Prize–winner Will (Men at Work) serves up an engaging compilation of his columns and reviews from the past five years. Touching lightly on the Bush administration and heavily upon American history, good government, obituaries and baseball among other less schismatic topics, Will is at his most colorful when describing the intrigues and absurdities of great figures in American political history—FDR setting the price of gold from his bed, Churchill imperiously ordering bacon and alcohol from White House staff. Will is, in the late William Buckley's words, the consummate conservative high-priest, who favors historical analogy and tasteful argumentation to partisan moralizing. The columns are uniformly excellent, but they are short-lived pleasures and can become disposable when read one after another—even the grouping by genre cannot obviate this—and these essays would have been better served had they been arranged chronologically. Nevertheless, this is a rewarding book, offering all the riches of a writer in full control of his medium and with plenty to tell. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

In his eighth collection of writings, with the benefit of his characteristic wit and style and a 40-year-career as a columnist, Will offers a broad, insightful, and affectionate look at American culture. He is ecumenical in his admiration of iconic American figures: Daniel Patrick Moynihan is remembered as a Sisyphus “forever pushing uphill a boulder of inconvenient data” and Milton Friedman as the nation’s most “consequential public intellectual of the twentieth century.” Predictably, Will lambastes absurdities committed by liberals—the city of Oakland charging as hate speech an effort to promote heterosexual marriage as the foundation of the “natural family”—but also takes conservatives to task. Will is skeptical of big idea conservatism and nostalgia for Ronald Reagan as a substitute for thinking. In this collection, Will turns his attention mostly to the incredible array of ideas and notions of American life—consumerism, religious fervor, commercial vitality—and so conveys the energy and vibrancy of American culture, society, economy, and politics. In pithy commentary on culture, Will is admiring of the endurance of Harley-Davidson and Brooks Brothers, and critical of political correctness on university campuses and elsewhere. Will’s greatest rhapsody is reserved for sports, particularly his beloved baseball. Will blends journalism, history, philosophy, and analysis so gracefully that readers of any political stripe must admire his effort and his art. --Vanessa Bush

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Forum; 1 edition (June 3, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307407861
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307407863
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,904 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

George F. Will
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's George F. Will Page

Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation
92% buy the item featured on this page:
One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation 3.5 out of 5 stars (13)
$17.79
Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball
3% buy
Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball 4.0 out of 5 stars (55)
$10.08
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
2% buy
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,068)
$14.47
Statecraft as Soulcraft
2% buy
Statecraft as Soulcraft 3.5 out of 5 stars (6)
$13.45

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, insightful, lots of big words, June 11, 2008
I enjoyed One Man's America for its insight, and because George Will refuses to allow readers to be lazy. I must admit, though, that it often seems like he just swallowed a thesaurus, that he's never met a compound adjective he didn't like. "No vulgarity is unthinkable now that the Holocaust has become fodder for semi-intellectual wisecracks," he writes, "the plaything of theory-weaving and ax-grinding academic and artistic mediocrities who discern a moral equivalence between commercial advertising and Nuremberg rallies."

Of course, I'm comparing that to my own writing, which usually doesn't ponder the theory-weaving of much beyond My Disney Girl's Perfectly Princess Tea Party. But I digress.

Will's smart stories give readers much to think about.

Although proudly lacking the common touch, his essays are often about the common man. The stories in this collection cover a wide range of topics, including baseball pitcher Greg Maddux, the movie United 93, atrocities of the Holocaust, the messy birth of aviation and the similarities between the Pearl Harbor attack and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The last two essays in the book are personal and touching: Will talks about his 35-year-old son Jon, born with Down Syndrome, and the death of his mother Louise at age 98.

I don't usually share Will's politics, but I have always admired his writing, and this generally apolitical book was a pure pleasure to read. I should note, however, that many of the 138 stories may seem familiar. All but seven are reprints, originally published in Newsweek and the Washington Post.

Here's the chapter list:

1. People
2. Paths to the Present
3. Governing
4. Sensibilities and Sensitivities
5. Learning
6. Games
7. The Game
8. Wondering
9. Matters of Life and Death
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars America Through Conservative Eyes, June 13, 2008
"One Man's America" focuses not on the large events of the first years of the 21st century, but rather how a conservative sensibility reacts to smaller matters. While doing so he also provides an entertaining and instructive unfolding of the American story.

Will's work begins with people (William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater, John F. Kennedy, etc.), and then on to various topics such as "The Amazing Banality of Flight," "Ed Schools vs. Education," and of course, an entire chapter on baseball. It ends, with a brief summary of his son's life with Down's Syndrome, and his mother's long dying with dementia. Throughout, it is thoughtful.

What I find most attractive about George Will, however, is not his intelligent, conservative perspectives, but his never-ceasing objectivity. Sometimes conservatives are just plain stupid, and when that is the case, George Will is the first to say so.
Comment Comments (3) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Collection of Writings from Will, July 19, 2008
By Eric Mayforth (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is the eighth collection of George Will's columns and other writings. The book is a great series of reflections on American life from 2002 to 2008.

"One Man's America" is a treasure trove of columns on historical figures, politics, history, the culture, sports (especially Will's beloved baseball), education, and science. He has a couple of great columns on the recently departed William F. Buckley, and his year-end columns and his columns about books are especially enjoyable.

Will is a national treasure. He is so learned, and has a staggering amount of background knowledge, that he manages to drop numerous unfamiliar facts about familiar people and incidents into his columns, which means that the columns must surely be educational for even the most well-informed D.C. insider. You may not agree with him on every issue, but to read George Will is not to spend time--it is to invest time.
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 Past His Prime
I used to respect and appreciate George Will's opinion. He used to be thoughtful and thought-provoking. Read more
Published 7 months ago by ElwoodJD

1.0 out of 5 stars Dumb
Mr. Will, what you've just wrote is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent book were you even close to anything that... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Optimus Prime

5.0 out of 5 stars sharpest wit
George Will has not lost his touch. He skewers conventional (read
mainstream media) wisdom with just the right amount of satire.
Keep it up.
Published 10 months ago by David Kraines

1.0 out of 5 stars Pointless
I have a lot of respect for George Will and so I was really looking forward to OMA. What a disappointment. Read more
Published 13 months ago by N. Perz

5.0 out of 5 stars Not What You Might Imagine
The simple narrative on George Will is that he's conservative. That of course is either praise or criticism. But I found this book to be surprisingly apolitical. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Ron Tarro

1.0 out of 5 stars Devils in Will's Details (adapted from his Aug 28, 2008 column)
When George Will feeds rhetorical bibble-di-babble to the multitudes watching him on TV every Sunday morning, he delivers a message of sufficient particularity that it seems... Read more
Published 14 months ago by gsundar

4.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable
This is an interesting book by Will that covers everything from baseball to politics to race relations. It is a collection of short essays written over the last few years. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Moira E. Mccaffrey

4.0 out of 5 stars Icon among Republican elites
If one can remember his/her school days and how often a good instructor would correct (some gently, others not so gently), Wills latest work is no different. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Tyler Arthur

4.0 out of 5 stars George Will's America can be trimmed down and customized by each reader
The book consists of a collection of 138 pieces each about two pages. You may find that your lack of interest in some of these items is so great that even George Will's writing... Read more
Published 16 months ago by andris virsnieks

5.0 out of 5 stars A manument to America
George F. Will is one of America's best known political commentators. He receved his PhD from Princeton in 1968 and has been an academic, political insider and writer ever since... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Seth J. Frantzman

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
   




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.