America is not a nation of readers, yet books have had a deep and lasting effect on its national life. By comparison with the Russians, whose thirst for books—especially contraband books—is legendary, we pay them scant attention; Walker Percy once dolefully estimated that the hard-core audience for serious literature in this country of two hundred and thirty million is perhaps one or two million, and he probably was not far off. True though that may be, it remains that had it not been for a number of hugely influential books, this nation might well be an almost unrecognizably different place.

Without Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, how broad and enthusiastic would support have been for the chancy business of revolt against the British crown? Without Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, how strong would sentiment have been in the industrial North for the abolitionist cause? Without Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, would Congress have roused itself to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906? Without Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, what would the environmental movement look like now- or would one even exist? Without Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed, would there be such a thing as consumer protection?

Full Story >>