18 books like What I saw in America

What to read after What I saw in America — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Tent-life in Siberia and adventures among the Koraks and other tribes in Kamchatka and northern Asia George Kennan · 1870 · 425p · ≈ 14h · Challenging An account of a period living in Siberia in pursuit of a plan to carry a telegraph line across land to Europe through Siberia in consequence of the failure of efforts to carry a telegraph line to Europe under the Atlantic. Shares: Description and travel, Travel, Social life and customs

The road to Little Dribbling Bill Bryson · 2015 · ★ 3.9 · 486p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes from a Small Island, one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled about Britain again, by bus and train and rental car and on foot, to see what has changed -- and what hasn't. Following a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis… Shares: Civilization, Description and travel, Travel, Social life and customs

The Lands of the Saracen Bayard Taylor · 1854 · 451p · ≈ 15h · Challenging This volume comprises the second portion of a series of travels. This work includes author's adventure travels in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain. Shares: Description and travel, Travel

Journey Without Maps Graham Greene · 1936 · 249p · ≈ 8h · Challenging This is an account of a trip Graham Greene made in 1935 with his cousin, Barbara Greene, through the previously unexplored interior of Liberia. It was an extremely uncomfortable journey, with Greene falling seriously ill halfway through the trip. Possibly as a result of this he also made a point of noting the many illnesses with which the local inhabitants were assailed, particularly malaria and… Shares: Description and travel, Travel

A diary in America Frederick Marryat · 1839 · 300p · ≈ 10h · Challenging "First appeared in June 1839...in three volumes, with three supplementary volumes appearing later in the year... In preparing this edition...I have used both the first and second series." Shares: Civilization, Description and travel, United States, Travel

Character & opinion in the United States George Santayana · 1920 · 233p · ≈ 7h · Challenging This is an essay book. About the middle of the nineteenth century, in the quiet sunshine of provincial prosperity, New England had an Indian summer of the mind; and an agreeable reflective literature showed how brilliant that russet and yellow season could be. There were poets, historians, orators, preachers, most of whom had studied foreign literatures and had travelled; they demurely kept up… Shares: American National characteristics, Civilization, United States

The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama · 2006 · ★ 3.9 · 392p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics--a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the "endless clash of armies" we see in Congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of our democracy. He explores those forces--from the fear of losing, to the perpetual need to raise money, to the… Shares: American National characteristics, United States

Bitter lemons Lawrence Durrell · 1957 · 271p · ≈ 9h · Moderate With the publication of Justine Lawrence Durrell became, almost overnight, one of the most talked about, widely acclaimed novelists of the decade. Now, in Bitter Lemons, his focus has shifted from the world of his imagination to life itself. Writing in the exquisite poetic prose that critics have hailed as unequalled in contemporary literature, he tells the perceptive, often humorous story of his… Shares: Description and travel, Travel, Social life and customs

The Pursuit of Loneliness Philip Slater · 1970 · ★ 4.0 · 174p · ≈ 5h · Moderate "The mother-son relationship is the focus of this major study of Greek family and Greek mythology. Greek women married early, were excluded from public life, and had little legal protection; yet females figure prominently in Greek mythology and the maternal goddesses are often represented as powerful and aggressive. It is Slater's contention that women in Greek society exerted a strong… Shares: American National characteristics, Civilization

Tropic of Capricorn Henry Miller · 1939 · ★ 3.8 · 349p · ≈ 11h · Challenging Author explores the sources of his early life in New York and undertakes to define a view of his country. Shares: American National characteristics, Civilization, Social life and customs

Notes from a Big Country Bill Bryson · 1998 · ★ 4.5 · 363p · ≈ 12h · Moderate The phenomenal bestseller from the author of Notes From a Small Island.From perfectly formed potatoes to adulterous US presidents, and from domestic upsets to millennial fever, Bill Bryson just cannot resist airing his opinions and standing up for his (mostly) law-abiding fellow American citizens. But of course after twenty years in England, he is now back on the other side of the pond, and is… Shares: Civilization, Description and travel, United States, Travel

Domestic manners of the Americans Frances Milton Trollope · 1832 · 366p · ≈ 12h · Challenging When Fanny Trollope set sail for America in 1827 with hopes of joining a Utopian community of emancipated slaves, she took with her three of her children and a young French artist, leaving behind her son Anthony, growing debts and a husband going slowly mad from mercury poisoning. But what followed was a tragicomedy of illness, scandal and failed business ventures. Nevertheless, on her return to… Shares: Description and travel, United States, Travel, Social life and customs

Palmetto-leaves Harriet Beecher Stowe · 1873 · 96p · ≈ 3h · Challenging After the Civil War, the Stowes bought a house on the St. Johns River near Mandarin, Florida. For several years, they spent the winters at their Florida home. In 1872, Stowe published Pametto Leaves describing the area, its people and wildlife. The book is organized as a series of articles and includes several ink sketches. It provides a unique view of north Florida and may have influenced Henry… Shares: Description and travel, Travel, Social life and customs

American notes Rudyard Kipling · 1890 · 68p · ≈ 2h · Challenging An account of America from Rudyard Kipling while visiting San Francisco in the late 1800s. Shares: Description and travel, United States, Travel, Social life and customs

Podróże z Herodotem Ryszard Kapuściński · 2004 · ★ 4.0 · 279p · ≈ 9h · Moderate From the renowned journalist comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.In the 1950s, Ryszard Kapuscinski finished university in Poland and became a foreign correspondent, hoping to go abroad -- perhaps to Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was sent to India -- the first stop on a… Shares: Civilization, Description and travel, Travel, Social life and customs

China Road Rob Gifford · 2007 · ★ 4.3 · 342p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows three thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.In this utterly surprising and deeply personal… Shares: Description and travel, Travel, Social life and customs

Our Old Home Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1863 · 398p · ≈ 13h · Challenging Our Old Home, a series of English sketches by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This volume of charming sketches was published in 1863, and (in the words of the author) presents “a few of the external aspects of English scenery and life, especially those that are touched with the antique charm to which our countrymen are more susceptible than are the people among whom it is of native growth.” Shares: Description and travel, Travel, Social life and customs

The Bush Agenda Antonia Juhasz · 2006 · ★ 4.0 · 393p · ≈ 13h · Moderate In The Bush Agenda, Antonia Juhasz exposes a radical corporate globalization agenda that has been refined by leading members and allies of the Bush administration over decades and reached its fullest, most aggressive implementation under George W. Bush—and Bush Agenda adherents plan for it to outlast him. Juhasz uncovers the history and key role of U.S. corporations in the creation of this… Shares: American National characteristics, United States, Social life and customs

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