Made in America
by Bill Bryson is a bit behind the curve of the events
of the last twenty five years as it was originally published in 1994, but it is has enough pleasant moments to make it worth a look. It is also hard to figure out whether he was
more interested in linguistics or the
fascinating ways Americans managed economic and personal change over
the first two hundred years of the Republic.
What saves the day is Bryson’s breezy style and cleverness with stories even if some of them go on a bit too long and make the book more of a slog than a
lot of his other efforts. Each chapter
also contains so many examples that I soon began to feel overwhelmed rather than
elucidated. This maybe why I now find
that I don’t remember many of them either. What do I remember? It was nice to learn that the typewriter was invented in Milwaukee (my home town) and that a lot of inventors really didn’t invent the thing they are famous for. The stories about the rise of the media, chain stores, food, cars, and commercial advertising went down easily but soon merged into a kind of blur. Maybe I should have taken notes. The item I remember most is that Ray Kroc didn’t really invent the McDonald’s hamburger. He bought it and then became the most successful franchiser in the world.
I did perk up in the final chapter when Bryson made his case that the American experiment and the American way of life had been primarily fueled by the drive and talents of immigrants. The irony just plain exploded here because finishing this chapter (and the book) coincided with our dear dummy of a president deciding that for the good of the country we needed to halt all immigration.
In sum still a good read that might have gone better if pruned. Sorry for the mixed metaphor.
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