At first, Simon Winchester’s British accent might seem an odd fit with this audiobook. It is, after all, a slice of Americana, recounting the stories of the men (yes, they’re all men) who turned the pluribus into the unum with their treks, travails, and technologies. It takes listeners from Lewis and Clark’s exploration to the building of the railways and the interstate highways, and from the telegraph to the Internet. But it’s quickly evident that Winchester—who was born and raised in England but became an American citizen in 2011 at age 66—is actually the ideal narrator. The audiobook is sprinkled with stories from his own life, and his reading sounds genuine and heartfelt, maintaining a pace that’s brisk without sounding hurried. D.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
Narrated by Simon Winchester
Simon WinchesterUnabridged — 13 hours, 35 minutes
The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
Narrated by Simon Winchester
Simon WinchesterUnabridged — 13 hours, 35 minutes
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Overview
“Simon Winchester never disappoints, and The Men Who United the States is a lively and surprising account of how this sprawling piece of geography became a nation. This is America from the ground up. Inspiring and engaging.”*-Tom Brokaw
Simon Winchester, acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Atlantic and The Professor and the Madman, delivers his first book about America: a fascinating popular history that illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings.
How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators, such as Lewis and Clark and the leaders of the Great Surveys; the builders of the first transcontinental telegraph and the powerful civil engineer behind the Interstate Highway System. He treks vast swaths of territory, from Pittsburgh to Portland, Rochester to San Francisco, Seattle to Anchorage, introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today's United States.
Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree. Featuring 32 illustrations throughout the text, The Men Who United the States is a fresh look at the way in which the most powerful nation on earth came together.
Editorial Reviews
Winchester’s latest history profiles a huge cast of eclectic characters who helped transform America from a cluster of colonies to a unified nation through the taming of the wilderness and the expansion of the country’s infrastructure. The sweeping narrative is cleverly organized into five sections—each corresponds to one of the classical elements (wood, earth, water, fire, metal) and focuses on a different phase of American exploration or development. Winchester (The Alice Behind Wonderland) masterfully evokes the excitement of the nation’s early days—when opportunity and possibility were manifest in uncharted mountains and new technologies—while bringing each of his subjects to life. Some, like Lewis and Clark, are familiar, while others—like the many topographers who set down the Mexican and Canadian boundaries—are more obscure, but no less interesting. Winchester, a Brit who recently became an American citizen, also incorporates personal travel anecdotes to comment on pivotal locations. This bold decision is the key to the book’s greatest achievement: conveying the large-scale narrative of unification via the small-scale experience of the individual—the creation of a people by the agglomeration of persons. Illus. and maps. (Oct.)
Entertaining. ... A pleasure.” — New York Times Book Review
“A rousing tribute to the alliances, agencies, and inventions - from Lewis and Clark to the Internet - that underpin our more perfect union. A stunning, highly original feast of a book.” — STACY SCHIFF, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cleopatra
“Vivid, valuable. ... An extraordinary, propulsive tale.” — Wall Street Journal
“An impeccably researched, erudite, well-told tale, peppered with occasional grace notes.” — Miami Herald
“An elegantly written account... filled with fascinating information.” — Boston Globe
“[M]esmerizing and fascinating… Mr. Winchester is a master storyteller, and all the individuals, places, and events that he passionately writes about come to life in exquisite detail.” — New York Journal of Books
“Winchester has found a thematic way to tell this familiar story so it seems fresh and informative, even fascinating.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Winchester provides surprising insights into our social history, further enriching his narrative with accounts of his personal odysseys around the country. The results are highly recommended for public and school libraries and all readers looking for new and stimulating perspectives on the history of America.” — Library Journal
“A most genial storyteller” — Las Vegas Weekly
“[I]nformative and absorbing” — The Oregonian (Portland)
“Simon Winchester never disappoints, and The Men Who United the States is a lively and surprising account of how this sprawling piece of geography became a nation. This is America from the ground up. Inspiring and engaging.” — Tom Brokaw
“What makes this book so enjoyable is that he ties the development of these advances to some brilliant but idiosyncratic personalities.” — BookPage
“He … freshens U.S. history by refusing to tell it through the usual suspects.” — Seattle Times
“The subtitle promises readers a sackful of exciting tales-and the author delivers. This is a clever, engaging and original look at what would seem well-trodden historical paths; but Winchester, delightfully, breaks a fresh trail.” — The Economist
“The tales he weaves were more engaging than most contemporary fiction.” — Zócalo Public Square
[M]esmerizing and fascinating… Mr. Winchester is a master storyteller, and all the individuals, places, and events that he passionately writes about come to life in exquisite detail.
A rousing tribute to the alliances, agencies, and inventions - from Lewis and Clark to the Internet - that underpin our more perfect union. A stunning, highly original feast of a book.
An elegantly written account... filled with fascinating information.
Entertaining. ... A pleasure.
Vivid, valuable. ... An extraordinary, propulsive tale.
An impeccably researched, erudite, well-told tale, peppered with occasional grace notes.
A most genial storyteller
[I]nformative and absorbing
Winchester has found a thematic way to tell this familiar story so it seems fresh and informative, even fascinating.
Vivid, valuable. ... An extraordinary, propulsive tale.
An impeccably researched, erudite, well-told tale, peppered with occasional grace notes.
The tales he weaves were more engaging than most contemporary fiction.
The subtitle promises readers a sackful of exciting tales-and the author delivers. This is a clever, engaging and original look at what would seem well-trodden historical paths; but Winchester, delightfully, breaks a fresh trail.
What makes this book so enjoyable is that he ties the development of these advances to some brilliant but idiosyncratic personalities.
He … freshens U.S. history by refusing to tell it through the usual suspects.
Simon Winchester never disappoints, and The Men Who United the States is a lively and surprising account of how this sprawling piece of geography became a nation. This is America from the ground up. Inspiring and engaging.
The tales he weaves were more engaging than most contemporary fiction.
A rousing tribute to the alliances, agencies, and inventions - from Lewis and Clark to the Internet - that underpin our more perfect union. A stunning, highly original feast of a book.
A brisk and bracing race through American history, geography, geology — and ingenuity, with a dash of psychology and sociology thrown in.
02/15/2014
Winchester (Atlantic) both writes and narrates this chronicle of American exploration and discovery and the inventions that have connected the country. He attempts through popular history and personal travelog to explain how such a vast and varied nation as America was united into a whole. He attempts to frame this account through the lens of the classical five elements of Chinese philosophy: fire, earth, water, wood, and metal. For instance, he explains how metal telegraph and telephone wires brought the country together. Resources at the end of the print edition were not recorded. The author's excellent narration adds nuance to this recording. VERDICT Recommended for travel and history buffs. ["Highly recommended for public and school libraries and all readers looking for new and stimulating perspectives on the history of America," read the review of the Harper hc, LJ 9/15/13.]—David Faucheux, Louisiana Audio Information & Reading Svc., Lafayette
At first, Simon Winchester’s British accent might seem an odd fit with this audiobook. It is, after all, a slice of Americana, recounting the stories of the men (yes, they’re all men) who turned the pluribus into the unum with their treks, travails, and technologies. It takes listeners from Lewis and Clark’s exploration to the building of the railways and the interstate highways, and from the telegraph to the Internet. But it’s quickly evident that Winchester—who was born and raised in England but became an American citizen in 2011 at age 66—is actually the ideal narrator. The audiobook is sprinkled with stories from his own life, and his reading sounds genuine and heartfelt, maintaining a pace that’s brisk without sounding hurried. D.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Using a nifty structure around the five classic elements of wood, earth, water, fire and metal, Winchester (Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, 2010, etc.) celebrates the brains and brawn that forged America's Manifest Destiny. The author tells the story of the tremendous movement East to West of pioneers, explorers, miners, mappers and inventors whose collective labors made the U.S. truly e pluribus unum. Men take most of the spotlight here. Lewis and Clark's Native American guide Sacagawea is one of the only females singled out by the author, who writes that she was "the key that opened the gates of the West and allowed the white men through." Nonetheless, Winchester can tell a good yarn with evident relish, enlisting the element in question to aid in delineating his big themes: Thomas Hutchins' visionary survey system of 1785 became the model for parceling up the vast expanse of the American West, township by township; William Maclure made the first truly detailed geological map of the U.S. in 1809; the discovery of the "fall line" in many American rivers suddenly rendering them impassable prompted the brilliant use of the canal system as employed by Loammi Baldwin; the building of the interstate road system, beginning with the very first in Cumberland, Md., constructed by John McAdam's new crushed-rock method in 1812; and finally, the advent of the ubiquitous telegraph wires across the country by 1860, carrying information and spelling the beginning of the new age and the end of the old. In between these milestones are a myriad other stories of American ingenuity, which Winchester recounts with enormous gusto and verve. Another winning book from a historian whose passion for his subjects saturates his works.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170006168 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 10/15/2013 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,187,812 |
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