TALK ABOUT AMERICA

by Alistair Cooke ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 11, 1968

A new collection (One Man's America--1952) of assorted pieces based on Mr. Cooke's broadcasts which are heard around the world--except in America. Once again they offer a congeries of vistas, views and opinions: George Washington rubs shoulders with LBJ (and re the latter, one is reminded that Lincoln was dubbed ""the Babboon"" by the London press of his times); there's a town meeting in New Hampshire and the Kentucky Derby; there are our instant health notions (don't walk, jog) as well as LSD in a world which is, as always, figuratively ""going to pot""; there are some revisionist remarks on stereotypes (the European thinks the worst of America while the American does the reverse); obituaries to Mencken--the sage-scourge of Baltimore, and Robert Frost--gnarled New Englander; assorted political and social pieces (Watts, the Deep South, the Warren Report; Vietnam--""the price of the Kennedy inaugural""). And an incisive essay on California--where everything that happens there prefigures what is in store for the rest of America, and after that, Europe. . . . Random, contemporary checkpoints--fair-minded, temperate, civilized commentaries in which, more often than not, the past informs the present.

Pub Date: Nov. 11, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION