Twenty-five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, And Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity

Tom Foster has established himself as the go-to literature expert for scores of readers across America; in his surefire bestselling hit How to Read Literature Like a Professor and its follow-up, How to Read Novels, he has opened countless literary minds to the finer points of reading and analyzing beloved books, all with his inimitable wit, good humor, and attention to detail—the very characteristics that define our favorite teachers and professors. In this newest book, he applies that combination of know-how and analysis and looks at the great masterworks of American literature and how each of them has shaped our very existence as readers, students, teachers, and Americans.   Starting with Ben Franklin’s autobiography, he moves on to James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and Willa Cather’s My Antonia. Chief among later selections are The Maltese Falcon, U.S.A., The Grapes of Wrath, and Song of Solomon. Foster illuminates how these and other works captured an American moment, how they influenced our perception of nationhood and citizenship, and what about them endures in the American character. Foster quite literally fosters a sense of discovery throughout the book, peeling back layers from familiar favorites, and arguing for books that aren’t so obvious. He concludes with a list of twenty-five more contenders and outlines what exactly is the “Great American Novel.” Twenty-Five Books that Shaped America will further establish Foster as one of America’s most beloved teachers.