I just finished A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins, which was written in the 1970s but was a refreshing answer to Bill Bryson’s Lost Continent, which depressed and ticked me off.
Bryson judged America by truck stops and through the windshield of his car. Jenkins walked through rural America and met real people, who impressed him with their kindness and generosity, as human beings tend to do. “America had opened its heart and embraced me mile by mile, and family by family,” he writes.
I’m not opposed to well-reasoned and usually deserved America bashing, but I think my home country deserves a chance to show its good side. After all, I don’t want to be judged solely by my darkest moments.
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