Publisher Description
“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.
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“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 sixty-six—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.”—
AudioFile
