Inside U.S. a

I enjoyed Gunther's state-by-state analysis of this great country from the vantage point of the late 1940's. He covers the entire political spectrum, and calls it like he sees it. His political insight was so good that he mentions JFK (in a footnote), LBJ, and even Hubert Humphrey (at the time he was only the mayor of Minneapolis). The most chilling prediction comes late in the book, when Gunther is writing about the legacy of Luisiana's Huey Long, who had been assasinated more than a decade earlier: "Any future demagogue who attempts to carve a road to power in the United States - for instance in the next depression if one comes - is almost certain to follow Huey's path. There is, indeed, no other. Fascism will come in disguised as socialism. A man will make every promise to the underpossesed, and undeniably improve their circumstances; he will appeal to almost every shade and variety of liberal; on the horizon, emerging, he will seem to be the savior, a disinterested messiah. The awakening comes later - with abrogation of civil liberties, military rule, seizure of the electorate, building of a Hitler-like machine, selling out to the big interests who were originally the opposition, concentration camps for the first followers and all the dissidents, and in the end bilking the people of what they thought they had." Let's hope that he is wrong.

My parents were WW2 era, my mom graduating high school in 1942 just in time to go off to war with my dad. Their journey is the story of another day (perhaps one I will write) but now that they are gone, we have the archaeological evidence of the world they lived in. Old shellac 78 rpm records, souvenirs bought dear by a soldier's wife, an E for excellence pin. My dad kept photos of warplanes by the dozens, in neatly arranged albums, old letters and postcards and sheet music and newspapers from VE and VJ day, now nearly dust after all these years. But I can touch a match to a lamp that will illumine that all important era any time by opening and reading from this book. John Gunther writes with a prose style filled with some kind of inner courage that is rare in today's reportage. He goes for the throat and he finds it--traveling all forty eight states in the USA of 1947. Issues come up again and again, Home rule for DC, Interstate rail tariff, Lend Lease, racism, land reform, interstate highways, social security. The USA that John Gunther describes is no more, but in many, possibly even most cases it is the seed and reason of the world we inhabit today. This is one of those books you read and reread and sit to wonder about the giants that built America. The Henry Kaisers and David Sarnoff, the Fiorello La Guardia and the Wendell Wilke, the shop steward and the NYC cab driver all have a place in his amalgam, and it all makes halcyon sense. John Gunther does not fix the USA in amber like a dead insect, he opens a window into another era---once the reader has traveled in the other America found there, he will always find this one changed. Pray for peace Fight for freedom persevere, Merry Christmas, 2007

If you have not read John Gunther's "Inside U.S.A.", you are in for a real treat. It is like taking a journey across America where Gunther's sense of the present and knowledge of the local environments is hard to rival. Perhaps the most striking aspects of the 1947 tour is how much each State has changed. Gunther's tour of post war America is a must read for anyone interested in US History or for that matter, their individual States. For me it was striking to see how much my native California has changed. In my case, it was a picture of what we have lost in the last 50 years. I loved "Inside U.S.A" so much that I ended up getting "Inside Africa", "Inside Europe" and "Inside Asia". Gunther's work has no rivals.

John Gunther's INSIDE U.S.A. comes as close to time travel as we are likely to get, hurling us back to the America of 1947, as he explores, state by state, the people, politics, issues, passions and fads that make up our country. Written with great energy and insight, Gunther captures an America justly proud of its WWII success, still unsure of its role in the world, and populated by fascinating characters like Mayor LaGuardia of New York, Governor Saltonstall of Massachusetts and Boss Hague of Jersey City. Gunther describes regional characteristics that persist today. He captures aspects of America that are gone,l never to return (an "industrial" nation based on coal, iron ore and steel.) And he foresees issues that dog America to this day -- the "Negro problem" (actually, the "White problem.") He condemns the segregationist society he finds in America, so inconsistent with its lofty ideals. As you can tell, I loved this book. It's very hefty -- but every time you are about to put it down, Gunther comes up with another amazing fact or interesting sidelight that keeps you reading. All this said, Gunther does concentrate on the (a) historical, (b) political and (c) economic side of things. You won't find much here about the arts or science. But it is amazing a single individual could have compiled this much data and presented it so interestingly.