America and Americans by John Steinbeck | Goodreadshttps://archive.org/details/americaamericans0000johnDisplaying 1 - 10 of 41 reviews
Mike1,526 reviews59 followers
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November 20, 2016Steinbeck's final book is a meditation on the American people, character, landscape, history, and future. He offers insight on the paradoxes of our political system, the immigrant experience (and our subsequent [mis]treatment of immigrants), the myths that construct our shared American identity, the way we project our identity to the world, our connection to (and destruction of) the land, our economic obsession, the pitfalls of our nation, and how we seem to overcome our flaws to continue progressing as a united people. Steinbeck offers an honest, frank, and highly-subjective analysis (which he freely admits on page one), and he does so out of an obvious abundance of love for the nation and its people. This hardback edition from 1966 is a large book that contains striking black-and-white and color photos, offering a glimpse of the United States in the mid-twentieth century that perfectly compliments Steinbeck's text. Photographs are included from Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, and Alfred Eisenstaedt, among many others.
Sometimes Steinbeck's essays are illustrated by personal experiences or stories he has heard from other Americans. The result is a literary composite of a people in the mid-20th century, at the height of the United States' influence in the world after WWII, but also in the midst of challenging and chaotic problems that reverberate today, including the Cold War, the atomic age, and the struggle for civil rights. Steinbeck's national portrait still holds strikingly true fifty years later. His warnings of a populace numbed by complacency, greed, and comfort, and all-too-riled-up by emotional political rhetoric that panders to base fear and prejudice, remains relevant as our nation enters the unchartered waters of a Trump administration that threatens to take us down an authoritarian route.
Perhaps we can understand the rise of Trump from Steinbeck's view of what Americans desire in their politicians: "We want a common candidate but an uncommon office holder." It's an impossible contradiction, but one that has somehow worked in the past, as Steinbeck acknowledges. But what happens when that office holder is revealed to be decidedly "common"? Or even worse: dangerous? Again, we may turn to Steinbeck for some words of hope. The final paragraph of his afterword reassures us that even in the midst of our darkest moments (which Steinbeck does not shy away from illuminating throughout the book) Americans always manage to rise to the occasion and push for progress. The final paragraph is worth printing in its entirety:
"From our beginning, in hindsight at least, our social direction is clear. We have moved to become one people out of many. At intervals, men or groups, through fear of people or the desire to use them, have tried to change our direction, to arrest our growth, or to stampede the Americans. This will happen again and again. The impulses which for a time enforced the Alien and Sedition Laws, which have used fear and illicit emotion to interfere with and put a stop to continuing revolution, will rise again, and they will serve us in the future as they have in the past to clarify and to strengthen our process. We have failed sometimes, taken wrong paths, paused for renewal, filled our bellies and licked our wounds; but we have never slipped back--never."
Let us take strength from Steinbeck's words, and understand that as we take up the mantle of progress against the forces of fear and division, we are engaging in the long, unending national struggle of a people who stubbornly fight against the odds--and against our own base flaws and shortcomings--to reach for an ideal which might be impossible to achieve, but which is nonetheless worth striving for, since it is in that struggle where we find the greatness of our people as a nation and in our shared humanity.
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Nathaniel Wilder59 reviews
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March 15, 2016his incisive cynicism never ceases to bore me. also he says "goodly" in like, 5 out of the 6 essays included, which is a goodly amount. the photos from old time and life mags are really, really great.
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Zoë67 reviews1 follower
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December 29, 2023I’ve somehow never read a Steinbeck but my grandpa has his whole collection so I picked something interesting and also short that I could read during my stay. This book is an interesting ethnography of sorts about American culture that is interesting to compare to 1966 when it was written, to today. Not a lot has changed (seems like we’ve always thought the world was going to shit and that the government isn’t very trustworthy) but he gets to his ideas about the roots of how we are the way we are.
He’s also totally a pessimist and thinks we’re all doomed and had very little nice things to say about the whole lot.
My favorite section was about “America and the land” maybe because I’m in Nebraska now and seeing the Oregon trail and reminders of what used to be here and the bison and wildlife before it was all so quickly devoured is an interesting comparison to what he talks about. Essentially that there are too many of us, and we take too much and have too much and get advertised to too much and that applies to the land we took too. Boy if he could see it now!
“The rules allow us to survive, to live together and to increase. If our will to survive this is weakened, if our love of life, and our memories of a gallant past, and faith in a shining future are removed-what need is there for morals or rules? Even they become a danger.”
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Jackson Kimball7 reviews
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March 19, 2026“But now we have food, shelter and transportation and the more terrible hazard of leisure.”
When I started reading America and Americans (1966), I was writing it off as a collection Steinbeck essays I could flip through while I was going to the bathroom or sitting out on the stoop, while the drizzles of misty March rain slapped down on the tin roof lurching out over my Portland patio. I was surprised to discover a singularly profound perspective that was maintained and expertly strung together over the course of around 200 pages, nearly half of which being black and white photos that look like they ripped from a compilation of TIME Magazine’s GOAT 🐐 pictures. Steinbeck’s scathing review of Americans’, past, present and future, while at times obnoxiously pessimistic and foreboding, does not feel at all unverified and has aged liked one of the finest wines a thirsty SOB could ever sip. I noticed a lot of Goodreads reviews of this were quick to complain about Steinbeck’s callous words on American habits and historical injustices. These users seemed to have missed Steinbeck’s oftentimes incredibly compassionate and, albeit deceptively, hopeful conclusions that he would end almost every entry with. A quote from the final chapter: “We seem to be running in all directions at once- but we are running.”
This book, on top of the fantastic takes, also features some evocative narratives that give Travels with Charlie fans something to enjoy. I’m giving this four, as opposed to five stars, because I would have enjoyed a couple more anecdotes. That’s just the opinion of this reviewer though and not indicative of the actual quality of this BOOK, which is probably a perfect five out of five stars.
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Anya74 reviews1 follower
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January 29, 2026Ok we get it I love Steinbeck... But seriously this was such an incredible read especially during a time like this. Steinbeck hits the dang nail on the head about major issues and feelings of what it means to be an American(especially during times of strife). And although the book was published in the 60's feels incredibly relevant and somehow timeless. Even in his nonfiction works this man just gets it. A few things dragged on a bit or went over my head which is fine I still had a great time.
I feel like this book really just reinforces the idea that I wish I could have just had a drink with the man sitting on a porch or like in front of a fire or something, seriously a brain I would have loved to pick.
4.5⭐️
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4-star i-had-things-to-say2 likes
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Roxann274 reviews
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April 21, 2021While John Steinbeck is my favorite author, this is the weakest of the books he wrote. This book, a collection of essays, is missing all the inspiration that makes Steinbeck's other works amazing. His unique ability of making all of his characters, both fictional and non-fictional, approachable, unique and likable is missing in this work. Basically, very few people are mentioned at all. Also missing is his sense of humor. This book was published in 1966, two years prior to his death. I am not sure that he felt any desire to write these essays, they are definitely filled with grim despair, and not much hope. He really just comes across as a cranky old man.
Also included in this book are a lot of photos. Most of these photos have no connection with the essays in the book. In fact, it is as if someone took two books and mashed them together. The photos are not stellar. There are a handful of standouts, but most are just average photos. And, the printing (maybe this is because of printing options in the 60s) is not good. The paper not quality, so even the photos that are okay are not printed great. One of the most annoying things was having 10-20 pages of photos, and the titles of them on one page, the page prior to the photos, so if you have any interest in knowing what the photo is and who snapped it, you need to keep flipping back to that page. This book must have been Viking Press' last gasp at getting another volume of work out of their Star Author. Unfortunately there is not much in it that is salvageable.
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Kirk241 reviews3 followers
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March 26, 2019I read the original edition of this book (white, green, and blue hardcover) which includes 100-some pages of photographs. The book is a large format because of this, which is great for the photographs, but not so great for portability or reading a page of text. I will say that the photos could have been more evenly interspersed with the text. Rather than opting for a text-photo-text-photo page layout, there are pages of text followed by pages of photos, with the largest dump of photos coming at the end. I'm torn as to whether or not the photos are a necessary part of the experience. Sure, there are some great ones, of the type one would expect from the front cover of TIME or LIFE. Perhaps I will be content in having seen these photographs at least once; then, if I ever buy the book, I'll buy the latest Penguin paperback that omits the photos and adds in various other non-fiction work of Steinbeck's. At any rate, it's the essays that are the real draw.
The following was a nice complement to my recent re-reading of David Foster Wallace's
The Pale King:
"I strongly suspect that our moral and spiritual disintegration grows out of our lack of experience with plenty. […]
John Kennedy said in his famous lines, “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” and the listening nation nodded and smiled in agreement. But he said it not because this selfishness might become evident but because it is evident, and increasingly so. And it is historically true that a nation whose people take out more than they put in will collapse and disappear.
Why are we on this verge of moral and hence nervous collapse? One can only have an opinion based on observation plus a reading of history. I believe it is because we have reached the end of a road and have no new path to take, no duty to carry out, and no purpose to fulfill.
[…] We manufacture things we do not need and try by false and vicious advertising to create a feeling of need for them. We have found no generally fulfilling method for employing our leisure.
[…] We have succeeded in what our fathers prayed for and it is our success that is destroying us."
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Andrew Doss22 reviews
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February 22, 2024To break out of a reader's block that the East Coast winter had put me in, I spent a Saturday afternoon wandering around bookstores and coffee shops in Williamsburg, where I stumbled across a collection of non-fiction works by John Steinbeck.
The first essay I read was titled "The Making of a New Yorker"-- apt, as I am now nearly 7 months into the transition, myself, and I was charmed and inspired to find a comradery with Steinbeck regarding it... So I bought the book and opted to read the longer form essay at the end, America and Americans.
This was my adult introduction to Steinbeck (as in: not mandated by a curriculum), and I can say I quite like his take on things, and his straightforward style.
This one only gets 3 stars because it didn't draw much emotion out of me, but I'd easily give the New Yorker essay 4 or 5.
John gives an impassioned and loving take on the state of America-- its history, and its future; and fusing a libertarian foundation in himself with an understanding of the necessity of the collective, and a true desire to find the best for his country and countrymen, he expresses his concerns.
(Paraphrasing a line I quite liked: "A man is both a social animal and an individual, and he cannot be the second, without first being the first.")
The essay, to me, equates itself to a fulfilling conversation about culture and politics over coffee with a friend whom I would generally agree with. At any rate, I'm excited to read more.
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Kevin Hogg428 reviews10 followers
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July 21, 2025I love how Steinbeck builds characterization and descriptive settings in his novels. I've enjoyed some of the personal accounts in his nonfiction work in which he discusses going out and interacting directly with people and places. This book has none of that. I read one of his books every year, and I quickly found myself hoping for something more interesting next year.
This book reads as though someone is sitting on their front porch talking about the good old days, ignoring the majority of the problems that existed while complaining about how nobody's any good anymore. But that's not what sunk this book for me--it's the inaccuracies in the reminiscences about a glorified past, and it's the failure to see that the experiences of his family aren't the experiences of all.
Starting from the beginning, he discusses how everyone has come together to form a unified country. Throughout, he speaks of Americans as though they're all treated equally and blessed with equal opportunities at every step. Interestingly, he discusses how everyone has chosen to come to this great land, listing countries around the globe, but Black people are notably absent from this discussion of the formation of the American people. He simplifies the story to make it seem as though people of all races and origins have not only been given ample opportunity to join the elite, but that they've all succeeded--quite the blanket statement to make. Then he goes on to lament how society has gotten to the point that people can't tell jokes about Jewish people anymore.
In another chapter, he discusses slavery as a necessity and says that enslavers shouldn't be judged too harshly. To support this, he invokes the experience of a grandfather who paid an enslaver for the use of a use of enslaved people to farm some land. He acknowledges that the workers got no pay whatsoever, but he leaves it at that--if my family did it, it can't be so bad. He reduces the opposition to slavery to a single point: Northerners were probably jealous of the leisure that Southerners enjoyed, so they wanted to take away the system that made life so easy for others. He says the discussions of adding free vs. slave states were just a means of planning the future economies of the states, and that the Civil War wasn't fought over moral concerns about slavery. He says this ended up giving enslaved people freedom that they didn't want, and he seems to indicate that post-Civil War violence was an understandable reaction by people who had lost their property.
In terms of the current population, he says that medicine has reduced infant mortality, maternal mortality, and senior mortality in a way that has become problematic. The weaker people aren't killed off anymore, so we have too many people, and society doesn't really have a use for the young and the old. He specifically discusses widows--back in the old days, they'd die young, so a man could marry five times, but now they outlive their husbands, and they don't have anything useful to do or contribute.
He says that the only real problem with American tourists has been that they were too humble and too generous when visiting other countries, and that building an increased contempt for people who haven't bothered to learn English has brought American tourists greater appreciation and respect around the world.
I could go on, but I think you get the point by now. He buys almost entirely into the story of the idealized American past--he shows some slight concern for how Indigenous people were treated, but this pales in comparison to the praise of the pioneer mentality that "settled" the country. He views the 1960s as a time when anyone from anywhere has it easy--too easy, in fact--and is now a full-fledged American life anyone else and is treated as such. As an old straight white man, I guess that's an easy enough viewpoint to have. Financial challenges don't play much of a role in his understanding of America, but he doesn't seem to remember that not everyone in the country had been awarded both a Pulitzer and Nobel prize, so he might not be the everyman he seems to believe in.
In addition to the content, the writing style just didn't work for me. It read like the sort of thing that would be quickly deleted by Wikipedia administrators for being generalizations without any evidence, or a paper that would be handed back to a high school student with a note about proving your assertions. So much of the book is a series of distortions--you can't go to a park without getting mugged, all children turn out bad, all people hearing a women in distress will ignore her, etc.
The book was disappointing at best. I've always enjoyed Steinbeck as a champion of the downtrodden and oppressed. A person who can paint a sympathetic portrait of people flocking west in the Great Depression to find opportunity. A person who can describe a labour strike and have the reader hanging on every word as the employees try to fight a greedy corporation and get what they deserve. I know Steinbeck cared about people of various races. His repulsion at watching the old white women lashing out against the young Black children wanting to attend school in Travels with Charley seems closer to where I'd place his views on race, so what happened in this book? He starts off by saying that the United States has been unfairly criticized by writers in other countries, so maybe he's on the defensive?
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Kelvin Richardson1 review
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March 30, 2020Steinbeck has always been by far my favourite author ; I wish that I had just stuck to his fictional work !
So disappointed (and surprised) to learn of his very active support of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
His anti-communism must have overruled his innate socialism.Shame that he died in 1968 so far too early to know just how wrong he was.
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