Let Us Now Praise America

In this insightful book America finds its rightful place, neither as a nation to be overwhelmingly faulted nor as a country to be uncriticly lauded. By colorfully examining politics, economics and the general psychologies of its citizenry, as well as various arts and practices, from auto driving to journalism to movie-making, Alan Goldfein has tried, with perception, wit and affection, to give us an as accurate as possible picture of this great and varied nation of ours and a dynamic portrait of that nation at a crossroads. Whereas a considerable amount of talk about America has focused today on dysfunctionality , the difficulties of achieving progress due to the battles between Right and Left, between Wall Street and Main Street, materialism and spirituality, and the opposing viewpoints on freedom, this land has nonetheless achieved much progress. And its strides have been more than those of any other nation its strides have indeed led all other nations. In Let Us Now Praise America, we see the passionate openness of our country, as compared to the peoples of those democracies most like ours. We see the drive towards innovation, the affectionate and compelling self-effacement of our humor (which cannot exist without a loving confidence in our abilities), the general welcome to immigrants, and the American spontaneity generated by its history and its kaleidoscopic variety. Such mosaic deserves the greatest praise, and it still indicates a great future too.