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Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and
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Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity Paperback - 2011

by Thomas C. Foster

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From the author of the hugely successful "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" comes a highly entertaining and informative new book on the 25 works of literature that have most shaped American identity.

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From the publisher

From the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Read Literature Like a Professor comes a highly entertaining and informative book on the twenty-five works of literature that have most shaped the American character.

Thomas C. Foster applies his much-loved combination of wit, know-how, and analysis to explain how each work has shaped our very existence as readers, students, teachers, and Americans. He illuminates how books such as The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, My ntonia, The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon, Their Eyes Were Watching God, On the Road, The Crying of Lot 49, and others captured an American moment, how they influenced our perception of nationhood and citizenship, and what about them endures in the American character. Twenty-five Books That Shaped America is a fun and enriching guide to America through its literature.


How did a handful of stories come to define a nation's soul?


  • The American Canon: Join Foster as he builds his list of the "Great Books" that created the American myth, from Benjamin Franklin's autobiography to the tales of Mark Twain.
  • Literary Criticism Made Easy: Discover the wit and wisdom that made How to Read Literature Like a Professor a bestseller, applied here to the foundational texts of the U.S.A.
  • Essays on Literature: Go beyond plot summaries to understand how these stories shaped our ideas of citizenship, nationhood, and what it means to be an American.
  • A Book Lover's Guide: Whether you're revisiting old favorites or discovering them for the first time, this guide offers fresh insights into the books that define us.

From the rear cover

From the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Read Literature Like a Professor comes a highly entertaining and informative new book on the twenty-five works of literature that have most shaped the American character. Foster applies his much-loved combination of wit, know-how, and analysis to explain how each work has shaped our very existence as readers, students, teachers, and Americans.

Foster illuminates how books such as The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, My ntonia, The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon, Their Eyes Were Watching God, On the Road, The Crying of Lot 49, and others captured an American moment, how they influenced our perception of nationhood and citizenship, and what about them endures in the American character. Twenty-five Books That Shaped America is a fun and enriching guide to America through its literature.

Details

  • Title Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity
  • Author Thomas C. Foster
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Original
  • Pages 352
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Harper Perennial
  • Publication date 2011-05-24
  • Features Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780061834400 / 0061834408
  • Weight 0.6 lbs (0.27 kg)
  • Dimensions 8 x 5.39 x 0.86 in (20.32 x 13.69 x 2.18 cm)
  • Themes
    • Sex & Gender: Feminine
  • Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Library of Congress subjects American literature, United States - Social life and customs
  • Dewey Decimal Code 810.9

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Citations

  • Kirkus Reviews, 02/01/2011, Page 0
  • Library Journal, 05/15/2011, Page 85
  • Publishers Weekly, 02/14/2011, Page 0
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Twenty-five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity – An Entertaining and Enriching Guide to Literature, Culture, and Citizenship

by Foster, Thomas C.

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Twenty-five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity

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Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity

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Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America : How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity

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by Foster, Thomas C

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