Kurin sheds remarkable new light on objects we think we know well, from Lincoln's hat to Dorothy's ruby slippers and Julia Child's kitchen, including the often astonishing tales of how each made its way into the collections of the ...

This book is the culmination of a broad effort, led by Kurin and involving all the Smithsonian’s museums and more than a hundred of its top scholars and curators, to select a set of objects that could collectively represent the American ...

Knowing his entire life that it was his father, Earl R. Dean, who designed the bottle, it became the author's mission to get the story told before the truth was forever lost-to set the record straight-not only for his father and his ...

In this delightful book Henry, Petroski takes a microscopic look at artifacts that most of us count on but rarely contemplate, including such icons of the everyday as pins, Post-its, and fast-food "clamshell" containers.

"A dazzling trove for students of Americana." Time...

I highly recommend this book to readers looking to delve into the complex tapestry of American history and culture.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • In this virtuosic, career-spanning collection, Martin Amis, "one of the most gifted novelists of his generation” (TIME), takes on James Joyce and Elvis Presley, Nabokov and English football, ...

The rise of the American diner is the most savory of phenomenons, where classic architecture, a friendly face behind the counter, and some mean pie all combined to make these little roadside stops a treasured part of history.

The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River.

It was the quantity of these gifts and the unusual and even unique nature of many of them that provided the inspiration for this book.