Ten Books that shaped the American character.. selected by American Heritage Magazine

This subject intrigued me, so I thought I would share it.


Some time ago, American Heritage magazine compiled a list of ten books that shaped the American character.  Jonathan Yardley was a book critic and columnist for the Washington Post and the author of Ring: A Biography of Ring Lardner; he was asked to do the compilation.


01.  Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau


Walden was written in 1854.  Thoreau's American themes were:


The longing for Independence;
The identity with the natural landscape;
The skepticism toward government;
The skepticism toward formal social institutions.


02.  Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman


Whitman published his first edition of twelve of his poems in 1855.  One of these "American" poems starts like this:


A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.


03.  Ragged Dick and Mark, The Match Boy by Horatio Alger


Alger combined the two novels in this edition, in 1867.  Alger wrote some 100 books, which sold 20 million copies.  They taught that with "pluck and luck" any person can make it from rags to riches in a laissez-faire market like America.


04.  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain


Twain published this book in 1884.  Besides being an American classic, it is required reading by every Russian school child.  I can't even remember how many times I have read it, and it wasn't even required in my schools.


05.  The Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer


Fannie published her book in 1896.  It was addressed to the housewife because Americans rarely had servants to prepare our meals.  (My mother was cook and housekeeper for a wealthy couple for a number of years.. but I would not dare tell her she was a servant.. not if you didn't want to be hit on the head with a cast-iron skillet!)  Yardley suggests that you use the first edition because later editions have been "tarted up,"  whatever that means.


06.  The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen


Thorstein wrote his book in 1899.  I must confess that I have never attempted to read this book.  Its a tough read because of his Scandinavian-influenced English (Scandlish?)  His message:  In order to maintain its position at the top of the heap, the leisure class must exploit all those below it, and that the conspicuous display of wealth is a condition of membership in this class.  It was a message that entered the U.S. into the study of Sociology.


07.  The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois


Mr. DuBois brought out his book in 1903.  He insisted that blacks had to demand higher education in the sciences and humanities, and that they had to be able to compete with whites for white-collar jobs.  He reminded everyone "Would America have been America without her Negro people?"


08.  In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway


This was a collection of fifteen short stories in the short, staccato style that everyone relates to Mr. Hemingway.  He brought it out in 1925.  Mr. Yardley put this book on the list even though he had no regard for the man or his works.  He thought that Mr. Hemingway's "manly" image (which we would probably call "macho" today) was phony.  Anyway, I really like Hemingway's short stories, especially his "A Clean Well-Lighted Place." 


09.  How to Win Friends and Influence People  by Dale Carnegie


This blockbuster came out in 1936.  Had there never been this book, we would probably never had been exposed to Norman Vincent Peale, Richard Simmons, and that wonderful lover of all people, the late, great Leo Buscaglia.  Everybody wants to improve themselves.. well, maybe almost everybody.


10.  Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock


Although this book was published in 1946, it is still being read today.  I always had a beat-up paperback copy near at hand to the cribs of my three children.. and I read it and used it (mostly).  My kids never got spanked by me or their mother (although she would threaten them with a giant kitchen spoon from time to time.)  and all three of them turned out  amazingly well... three kids and now adults that any parent would be happy to call their own.  Thank you, Dr. Spock... and my son liked your cousin from Star Trek too.


..Well, that's it.  American Heritage's 10 best. 


......................................................................................