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Actually finished this about a week ago and forgot to write a review. It was really good at parts and really slow at parts. I liked the stories on Lewis and Clark, the invention of the US highways, the info on Tesla and Morse, and I liked the stuff about the National Parks and info on the Pacific Northwest. His books tend to make me want to travel a lot. This book is a little slow though as I didn't really care about the stuff on the canal's that much and some other chapters. Winchester is a pre...
If American history was taught in the manner this was written, perhaps Americans would be more appreciative (and knowledgable) of their heritage. This book is entertaining and absorbing. I learned much about this country that I had not known, but the learning was painless. It's history at its best: human interest and intriguing events woven into a compelling narrative. Simon Winchester is a skilled writer at the top of his game with this volume.
This is the most boring Simon Winchester book I've ever read and yet I still really enjoyed it! The man just has a way with history that few other historians can replicate. He's the Dr. Frankenstein of history. He enlivens it. He even embiggens it!Reading the title The Men Who United the States, I assumed I was in for the usual Revolutionary War book. I expected Washington, Adams and Jefferson, and yes it does begin with them (just Washington and Jefferson though...poor Adams). Then it slides in...
As a fan of Simon Winchester’s previous books (Krakatoa, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and The Professor and the Madman) I was intrigued by a book about the history of the United States from someone who usually tells fascinating and little known histories of the subjects he writes on. Winchester does not disappoint in this volume about the men who shaped this country (and for the feminists out there Sacagawea is thrown into the mix) through a variety of development eras. These eras which do
Winchester is engaging here as usual, but this is a somewhat uneven book. Unforgettable anecdotes and descriptions that effortlessly flow into one another mingle with the ones that are less interesting and choppier. For whatever reason the whole structure doesn't gel that well, and it may be due to a somewhat artificial imposition of the form of the five Japanese elements: wood, earth, metal, water, and fire on the themes of American unification. The division is meant as a tribute to Winchester’...
Oh boy, a generally interesting book filled with several reminders of that which made America exceptional. Unfortunately the author's understanding of the roles played by the several participants involved in each step of American progress seems overly influenced by the desperately poorly researched "work" of Howard Zinn. The author's pathological clinging to the wish that Roosevelt's policies mitigated the impact of the great depression is not supportable by any reasonable temporal analysis of t...
Despite outward appearances, this is not really a history book. It is the author's paean to his adopted nation (Winchester was born in England), and thus it is a very personal, idiosyncratic trip through certain episodes of American history. The author is interested in analyzing the various human achievements that knit this physically enormous nation together, and the book includes some interesting vignettes about some under appreciated individuals and achievements (explorer John Wesley Powell,
I'm not sure why I went for another Winchester book when I was so distinctly underwhelmed by the last one I read, but I thought I'd give it a try. It is exactly what it says on the tin: a boy's own history of the United States, albeit a highly disorganized one since Winchester's choice to insert his own travels and to organize the book around five elements doesn't make for a very coherent read. I was put off almost right from the go by the curt dismissal of Sacagawea (really not important, just
This ambitious undertaking is Simon Winchester’s attempt to show how the America came together into one nation. It is structured in a logical way, considering the vastness of the topic, in five categories: wood, earth, water, fire, and metal. The author covers a wide swath of American history, highlighting many familiar names as well as unsung heroes, providing the reader enough information to get a sense of their personalities and eccentricities. He covers such diverse undertakings as explorati...
An enjoyable book which describes the connections made by men of "true grit" who, from the Corps of Discovery led by Lewis and Clark to the creation of the World Wide Web, made America the great nation that it is.The author wove a story of his personal experiences on research for this book with essays and historical facts of those both familiar to us and by those more obscure names in history who helped connect the U.S. from coast to coast. From early river exploration and the creation of canals...
Well-written. Well-researched. I learned so much. Definitely a five-star book for me.
Compelling, albeit incomplete, history that is well-told by Winchester, a naturalized American. He does an excellent job of explaining how the American spirit was shaped those who helped establish the "tangible connections" that helped to unite our country. These tangible connections (aka infrastructure) includes roads, canals, railways, telephone lines, and power grids, and, more recently, digital networks. This explains, at least to some extent, the almost complete absence of women from Winche...
This is interpreted history through the eyes of the author. And it, IMHO, should not be classified in the non-fiction category as to progressions and causes /effects. At least not to a 70% accurate degree. And I've read enough by 120 pages to know that I'd rather read biography or individual subject matter that holds research to a first tier degree. This doesn't.Indivisible with the Civil War a single bump through his eyes. Someone's eccentric is another's normal. Definitions are also murky.
Simon Winchester's latest book, The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible is definitely one of the best books (and not just nonfiction) I have read this year.Think about it. As a country we (or our ancestors) were a hodge-podge of ethnic backgrounds, religions, and languages. America has had to make a union for itself and Winchester details beautifully some of the deliberate acts of Americans that have bro...