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One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation | 
 enlarge | Author: George Will
Publisher: Crown Forum
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 76339
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0307407861
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780307407863
ASIN: 0307407861
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: former library book - very good condition - slight shelfwear
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Product Description
In his provocative and compelling new book, America’s most widely read and most influential commentator casts his gimlet eye on our singular nation. Moving far beyond the strict confines of politics, George F. Will offers a fascinating look at the people, stories, and events–often unheralded–that make the American drama so endlessly entertaining and instructive.
With Will’s signature erudition and wry wit always on display, One Man’s America chronicles a spectacular, eclectic procession of figures who have shaped our cultural landscape–from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., from Victorian poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from cotton picker— turned—country singer Buck Owens to actor-turned-president Ronald Reagan.
Will crisscrosses the country to illuminate what it is that makes America distinctive. He visits the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor and ponders its enduring links to the present. He travels to Milwaukee to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of an iconic brand, Harley-Davidson. In Los Angeles he finds the inspiring future of education, while in New York he confronts the dispiriting didacticism of the avant-garde. He ventures to the Civil War battlefields of Virginia to explore what we risk when we efface our own history. And on the outskirts of Chicago he investigates one of the darkest chapters in American history, only to discover a shining example of resilience and grace–the best the country has to offer.
Will’s wide lens takes in much more as well–everything from the “most emblematic novel of the 1930s” (and no, it is not about the Joads) to the cult of ESPN to Brooks Brothers and Ben & Jerry’s. And of course, One Man’s America would not be complete without the author’s insights on the national pastime, baseball–the icons and the cheats, the hapless and the greats.
Finally, in a personal and reflective turn, Will writes movingly of his thirty-five-year-old son Jon, born with Down syndrome, and pays loving and poignant tribute to his mother, who died at the age of ninety-eight after a long struggle with dementia.
The essays in One Man’s America, even when critiquing American culture, reflect Will’s deep affection and regard for our nation. After all, he notes, when America falls short, it does so only as compared to “the uniquely high standards it has set for itself.” In the end, this brilliantly informative and entertaining book reminds us of the enduring value of “the simple virtues and decencies that can make communities flourish and that have made America great and exemplary.”
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Thoughtful, insightful, lots of big words June 12, 2008
Julie Neal (Sanibel Island, Fla.)
48 out of 52 found this review helpful
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
A manument to America June 7, 2008
Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel)
22 out of 31 found this review helpful
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. From 1972 to 1978 he was editor of National Review, the nation's premier conservative magazine where he worked with William F. Buckley, another conservative icon. Here, finally, is a sort of tour of America by a man who knows and loves it best. This is a series of vignettes, from Harley Davidson to ESPN, a series of quips and commentary on all that is good about America and some things that are not good. It is also a great deal of soul searching and advocations for Americans not to forget there past. George Will sets off on a sort of road trip reminscent of Easy Rider (35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), but one from a conservative viewpoint, sort of 'Easy Rider' without all the drugs. But it is no less a statement of love for all the diversity that is America for this is not merely an examination of 'one man's America' but of all our Americas and how the U.S will continue to be a city on the hill.
A very nice book, a great collection of observations and commentary.
Seth J. Frantzman
America Through Conservative Eyes June 13, 2008
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
"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.
Another Great Collection of Writings from Will July 19, 2008
Eric Mayforth (Houston, TX United States)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
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.
 Pointless October 12, 2008
N. Perz (St. Louis)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have a lot of respect for George Will and so I was really looking forward to OMA. What a disappointment. It's nothing more than a collection of short commentaries and profiles (some seem like obituaries): a disjointed hodge-podge lacking in overall direction or substance. What an unbelievably pointless book.
Very sad...
Not recommended.
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