(A Sampler) State By State A Panoramic Portrait of America

by Unknown

Paperback

Published January 1, 2008

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Unknown" when the author or editor (as applicable) is not known and cannot be discovered. If at all possible, list at least one actual author or editor for a book instead of using "Unknown".

Books whose authorship is purposefully withheld should be attributed instead to Anonymous.

Reviews

[Chris]

51 essays, each on one of the 50 states and the district of columbia. While it's easy to point to the important state facts omitted in each essay, it's also easy to forgive these omissions. It is "a sampler". Sure, I liked some essays better than others. I enjoyed this book's effort at capturing the US culture, history, idiosyncracies. As I read the essays, not alphabetically, but randomly, it was interesting to see, perhaps more a function of the individual writers' experiences rather than the states' cultures themselves, how experiences were similar in different parts of the country. Indeed, several writers comment on the homogenation of this vast collection of civilizations brought on by box stores and national television and media. Perhaps future such essay collections will therefore be easier to write.

[Lauren]

You'll laugh; you'll cry. This would be a 5-star review except for the fact that my home state's entry (courtesy of Susan Orlean) is actually pretty lame. Son of a gun.