Twenty-five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity

From the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Read Literature Like a Professor comes a highly entertaining and informative book on the twenty-five works of literature that have most shaped the American character.

Thomas C. Foster applies his much-loved combination of wit, know-how, and analysis to explain how each work has shaped our very existence as readers, students, teachers, and Americans. He illuminates how books such as The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, My Ántonia, The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon, Their Eyes Were Watching God, On the Road, The Crying of Lot 49, and others captured an American moment, how they influenced our perception of nationhood and citizenship, and what about them endures in the American character. Twenty-five Books That Shaped America is a fun and enriching guide to America through its literature.

How did a handful of stories come to define a nation’s soul?

• The American Canon: Join Foster as he builds his list of the "Great Books" that created the American myth, from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography to the tales of Mark Twain.
• Literary Criticism Made Easy: Discover the wit and wisdom that made How to Read Literature Like a Professor a bestseller, applied here to the foundational texts of the U.S.A.
• Essays on Literature: Go beyond plot summaries to understand how these stories shaped our ideas of citizenship, nationhood, and what it means to be an American.
• A Book Lover’s Guide: Whether you’re revisiting old favorites or discovering them for the first time, this guide offers fresh insights into the books that define us.