Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, a provocative and challenging piece of philosophical fiction, deserves to be on the list because it has influenced many politicians, including presidents, businessmen, innovators, and members of the general public.

Let me add that I’ve just found a show that Tom did on Ayn Rand back in 2005:

http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2005/02/life-and-legacy-of-ayn-rand/

I have to cast a vote for The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I’m not a historian, but I think this book had a profound influence on the government regulation in many areas we have today. Everything from food inspections to lending regulations. Trouble is sometimes we lose sight of the need for regulation!

Ditto on Ayn Rand. Thanks to her shaping of Alan Greenspan’s brain the effects of her thinking are multiplying through the economy in spades. Alan Shrugged and the financial fell from his shoulders crashing into a million little pieces.

This is a great show – I’ve added it to my web site to start some discussion. One point though – I wonder what this list would look like if it was constructed by a female, African American, etc. No discounting the list – really good, just wondering what other’s list would look like

I’m surprised that the work that made this nation a nation didn’t make it. Common Sense by Thomas Paine (though only technically a pamphlet, but hey the Federalist Papers were originally newspaper articles) convinced the American people to change the goals of the American Revolution from representation in Parliament to a complete break with Britain.

I didn’t hear a military book, I would suggest “Red Badge of Courage”. Isn’t the civil war the single most important influence in our nation’s history?

I meant to say “financial world”.

I’m glad to know that Parini has included The Souls of Black Folk in his list–but as he goes on his book tour, he needs to know the the author’s name is not spoken with the French pronunciation, “du bwah,” but is pronounced “du boyz.”

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood changed American literature. I believe it ushered in the stark realism in writing we take for granted today.

Another Book that has been influential for millions of Americans and helped create an entire worldwide movement is Alcoholics Anonymous. It has set the tone not only for Alcoholics and addicts but also for the support group movement that has grown both within and outside therapeutic contexts.

In the last few years, I have spent a lot of time watching old movies and classics from the “golden age of television.” These productions as well as a series of books about pioneers and others, have made me realize that one of the basic, overarching facts about the background of the American “psyche” is that for a couple of centuries everyone who received and education, received a European classical education. Everyone who received an education basically all read the same books. It seems to me that to this day, these books are the basis of our worldview. The books suggested by the author are the second layer that make America America. I think it is important to remember both sources of what we are today. I don’t want to go on for too long but very briefly: I think that “European classical education” is an important factor to this day in limiting our understanding the rest of the world. Furthermore, these classics along with the books suggested by the author also make it almost impossible for America to come to terms with our foundational responsibilities in destroying Indians and their cultures.

With the self-help books you include, why is Alcoholics Anonymous not included, as well?

To Kill A Mockingbird. This book launched tens (perhaps hundreds) of thousands of legal careers. This book is the shining beacon for criminal defense attorneys (including yours truly). It is the touchstone for the profession.

ps Please try to resist the jokes. Atticus Finch is the kind of lawyer all good attorneys asspire to be.

per the conversation on Leaves of Grass: how much does it matter how many people read a book? if the ideas and art of a book enter the intelligentsia and those people begin to work with it, its ideas enter the culture and so does it not attain influence in this way?

LM,I think that’s just how it works. Best, J.

I would put Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck on your list. This book shaped my thinking in a profound way regarding social consciousness. Also Song of Solomon and/or Beloved by Toni Morrison — my first exposure to a female point of view on slavery and civil rights

I can’t imagine where we would be today without Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring.
It shook to the foundations the myth that unfettered “progress” had no consequenses. I would think modern ecology starts there.

These are among the best-selling books of all time:

Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship

Joseph Smith, Jr., The Book of Mormon

Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life

JD Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

The Hite Report, Shere Hite

This list has some surprises, and I agree whole-heartedly with comments made about Alcoholics Anonymous (which could replace Dr. Spock’s Book) and Atlas Shrugged (which could replace the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin). Perhaps there could have been room for “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” but 13 is a rather small list considering the depth of this country.

What disturbed me most, however, is when Parini was talking about the immigrant book and said that “everyone here who’s not Native American is an immigrant,” and failed to say, “some against their will,” and failed to mention slavery or blacks when he was talking about what immigrants observed when they arrived as opposed to what they imagined.

This program had me running to get my copy of “The Promised Land” to re-read. Again.
On another note, and some may find this picky, but the correct word for women who rallied for the vote is “suffragist” not “suffragette.” The latter is a perjorative that has crept into the language as acceptable. It’s a put-down akin to “the little woman” when referring to a wife.
Otherwise, I loved the program. As usual.

Where can the author’s list of his 100 books be found?

Great show, as usual.

I am disappointed by Jay Parini’s list.

He leaves out any book that captures the immigrant experience in America. He makes it seem as if the wasp culture set was the norm and only books that either express those cultural values or challenge them are important.

I would suggest that books like Saul Bellow’s Augie March which for many ethnic American writers changed their perception of the country and their place in it. Writers as diverse as Jeffrey Eugenides and Philip Roth looked to that book as a liberating experience and not Kerouac or the beats.

Mary Antin’s book btw doesn’t even come close to having have had the same influence as Bellow did.

Please stress the point about the pronunciation of Du Bois’ name. He did not pronounce it as if it were French, but as Du Boyz, as suggested above.

I’ve noticed two books that have influenced my college-age students from their high school reading, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I think would would not have Obama as president if it weren’t for the impact of these books.

I enjoyed the program but was taken aback to hear Jay Parini state that Susan B. Anthony participated in the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. He is incorrect. Susan B. Anthony was not at Seneca Falls. That historic meeting was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments for the occasion, which was the first time a woman publicly demanded the right to vote. Perhaps Parini misspoke, but in doing so he contributed to a common misconception about Susan Anthony. Although Anthony is justly famous for her decades of work for women’s suffrage, she was not present at the birth of the movement at Seneca Falls. That honor belongs to Stanton, the founding mother of the 19th century women’s rights movement.

“I’ve noticed two books that have influenced my college-age students from their high school reading, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I think would would not have Obama as president if it weren’t for the impact of these books.”

I read both books when I was in college many years ago. Loved Ellison’s novel hated Morrison’s Beloved.

I voted for Obama but no because of these books. I also voted for Clinton and it wasn’t because I read Faulkner.

Let’s get real here.

[...] they had a show on the topic of the “13 Books That Changed America” (click to be taken to the show online). Jay Parini lays out the most important books that [...]

Once again, Tom, thanks for a very special program. The conversation you had with Jay was filled with a sense of discovery, like two friends on a treasure hunt. We would like to add to that conversation.

Like all colonial powers, we in this country do tend to have institutional amnesia. What about that part of the unfolding of the Americas that has come at the expense of indigenous peoples for whom this was truly a “promised land?” They were here, in true relationship with the bounty of this land, with a deep sense of gratitude for those gifts. It is too easy to reject or overlook the contributions of those who were here before us. They were here long before the peoples of Europe even knew that the earth was round, and they had well-developed systems of living with each other, the land, and their sense of the source of all life. What if we had been more willing to learn from them, rather than treat them as inferior?

Until we acknowledge, and make amends for, what amounted to genocide, we have little hope of ever completely fulfilling the “promise” of this land.

Here are some (of the many) books that we feel add to a balanced understanding of this “promised land.”

The Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen
Seven Arrows, by Hyemeyohsts Storm (a teaching story)
Creek Mary’s Blood, by Dee Brown (novel)
Touching the Fire, by Roger Welsch
Touch the Earth: A Self-portrait of Indian Existence, compiled by T. C. McLuhan
Dance Back the Buffalo, by Milton Lott (novel)

P.S. We’d love to hear a program that would help restore the memory of those who would prefer to stay more comfortable and therefore less informed.

I was glad to see the comments by Posy and e. frances white about the pronunciation of Dubois. Even after Tom Ashbrook subtly tried to insert the correct pronunciation (Doo-Boys), Parini then went on to insist on his French at least five more times. I am shocked that a professor from Middlebury could not have heard the correct pronunciation at some point during his research! Otherwise, I enjoyed hearing the list and the comments.

I wrote a blog post (see http://www.insideoutchina.com) after listening to this show, and bought Jay’s book right away. Thank you!

Robison, I had a similar reaction to Parini’s statement about Susan B. Anthony and the Seneca Falls Convention. (See my comment.) I thought, how could a professor at Middlebury College get it so wrong? It’s just further proof, if we needed any, that everyone makes mistakes–even professors at elite colleges!

The Whole Earth Catalog had a vast effect on a generation of Americans reconsidering their place in the received value system. It provided practical, life oriented guidance forward when the mythos of much economic, social, religious, and political dogmas were– at least temporarily– exposed as a bare cupboard. While that book was necessarily superceded by other informational avenues, it was an early beacon in the forest for disenchanted people not satisfied with either the tune-in-drop-out or the march-in-the-streets modalities. It helped move many of us back to where we could, if we looked hard enough, we could see our roots, until then receding beyond reclamation.

The Promised Land by Mary Antin was written by my Grandmother. She was complex and a seeker, speaker, and controversial woman. Thank you for understanding her contribution. Her book is still being used in colleges not only in the USA but in other countries. There was a documentary done by people from Germany a few years ago. They came to our home and Mary Antin was added to the list of Jewish women in history who influenced our world. She spoke for all people and she believed in and loved this country.
Sincerely
Rosemary Richards

Am watching Parini on Book TV and am finding his comments very interesting. Great suggestions above to add to the list. I can’t help but hope that Thomas Friedman’s “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” will one day be added to the list. We’re at Code Green, my townspeople!