As the home of nearly 300 million people spread over approximately 3.7 million square miles of earth, the United States poses a monumental challenge to all who try to grapple with its rich and immensely complex physical and social geography. Acclaimed historian Jeremy Black tackles this challenge through a literal and metaphorical road trip across America's physical and historical landscapes, analysing the ways that events in American history and culture since 1960 have remade the geography and demographics of America. Black works from the premise that the United States is a continent pretending to be a country. He examines the cultural clashes - and the tense harmony - between the numerous regional cultures uneasily contained within the United States' wide bounds. Suburban sprawl, the triumph of consumerism, the war over health care, immigration and Christian evangelicalism all play a part in these pages, as well as the tug of war within us government politics, and the alternating rise and fall of individualism and conformity. Black also has some telling new reflections on America's role abroad from Nixon's Vietnam to Bush Junior's Iraq.
In Altered States Black deftly reveals less examined aspects of American culture as they are manifested in the diverse peoples and landscapes that stretch from coast to coast.
- ISBN10 1861894422
- ISBN13 9781861894427
- Publish Date 1 February 2012 (first published 1 August 2006)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Reaktion Books
- Format eBook
- Pages 240
- Language English