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This book, now half a century old, is an astonishing tour de force. It presents a shrewd, fast-moving, sparkling panorama of the United States at this historic moment of apparent triumph. . . .
Inside U.S.A. does not pretend to be a profound analysis of American civilization, in the manner of Tocqueville and Bryce. But Gunther had his own quiver of penetrating questions. His objective was to identify the forces that made "this incomparable Golconda of a country" move. Wherever he went, he asked, Who runs this state or city? What are the basic and irreversible sources of power--social power, economic power, political power? He interviewed more than 900 people and emerged with more than a million words of notes. And he did it all himself, without professional researchers or stringers. . . .
Inside U.S.A. is far from a panegyric. Gunther listed "the worst American characteristics--covetousness, ignorance, absence of esthetic values, get-rich-quickism, bluster, lack of vision, lack of foresight, excessive standardization, and immature and undisciplined social behavior." America was still "an enormously provincial nation," he wrote. "I do not know any country that is so ignorant about itself." Have we improved noticeably in the half century since? -- The Atlantic Monthly, Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
A superb compendium. The whole picture is true and to describe such a vast complex and get anywhere near the truth is a magnificent achievement. -- Rebecca West
By far the best of the Inside series. . . If any book can tell us what it means to be an American, this is it. -- Clifton Fadiman
The richest treasure-house of facts about America that has ever been published, and probably the most spirited and interesting. -- Sinclair Lewis
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