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American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions Audiobook
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(2.97) - 58 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
From Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, star of NBC's The Chris Matthews Show, and the New York Times bestselling author of Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think, comes this celebration of the American Spirit.
Fiercely independent, in love with freedom, convinced we can make it, we are like no other people on earth. We are a people reluctant to fight who become ferocious warriors when threatened or attacked. We are suspicious of govermental power yet quick to embrace our flag in times of danger. A deeply practical nation, we loom as the world's great optimists.
What unites us Americans is not so much language or ethnicity, but a set of distinct notions about ourselves that comprise our American-ness. The self-made country. The constant rebel. The reluctant warrior. The lone hero. The pioneer. The optimist. You see them in the movies we make, the books we write, the history we have lived. What stirred the souls of our ancestors two centuries ago -- and all the generations in between -- still does.
In American, Matthews presents a portrait of a country that enters the world arena armed with an extremely potent weapon: the collective notions we carry of America at its best. It's a picture of more than just a nation challenged but of a people ready, and eager to prevail.
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“[An] expansive, unapologetic celebration of the American spirit. Asserting that Americans are unique among the peoples of the world, the MSNBC Hardball host cites examples from 1776 to 9/11 that show how they are united not by race or ethnicity but by threads of beliefs and principles.”
— Barnes & Noble, editorial review
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“His Whitmanesque embrace of contradictions papers over great fissures in American politics and society, but that is precisely the point of Matthews’ positive, chest-thumping thesis: it’s all good.”
— Publishers Weekly
American Listener Reviews
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" This is Chris Matthew's version of a "USA" chant at a hockey game. "
— Mike, 10/10/2013 -
" I am going to give this listen, mainly because the pickings are getting slim in the non-fiction audiobook section in the public library. "
— Michele, 4/26/2011 -
" This is Chris Matthew's version of a "USA" chant at a hockey game. "
— Mike, 4/6/2008
About Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews is anchor of MSNBC’s Hardball. He is the author of several books, including Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America, and Hardball: How Politics is Played By One Who Knows the Game, and others. Previously, Matthews spent 15 years at the San Francisco Examiner and two years at the San Francisco Chronicle. He received a degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.