Free Made In America by Bill Bryson

1935).
    Wells, J. C., Accents of English: Beyond the British Isles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
    Weston, Jack, The Real American Cowboy (New York: Schocken Books, 1985).
    Will, George F., Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball (New York: HarperPerennial, 1991).
    Wilcox, William B. (ed.), The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972).
    Wills, Garry, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978).
    ——— Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1992).
    Wortham, Thomas, James Russell Lowell’s ‘The Biglow Papers’: A Critical Edition (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1977).
    Wright, Esmond, Franklin of Philadelphia (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 1986).
    Wright, Frances, Views of Society and Manners in America (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 1963).
    Wyllie Irvin G., The Self-Made Man in America: The Myth of Rags to Riches (New York: The Free Press, 1954).
    Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States (New York: HarperPerennial, 1990).

Bill Bryson’s opening lines were:
    ‘I come from Des Moines. Someone had to’.

    This is what followed:

    The Lost Continent
    A road trip around the puzzle that is small-town America introduces the world to the adjective ‘Brysonesque’.
    A very funny performance, littered with wonderful lines and memorable images’ LITERARY REVIEW
    Neither Here Nor There
    Europe never seemed funny until Bill Bryson looked at it.
    ‘Hugely funny (not snigger-snigger funny but great-big-belly-laugh-till-you-cry funny)’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
    Made in America
    A compelling ride along the Route 66 of American language and popular culture gets beneath the skin of the country.
    A tremendous sassy work, full of zip, pizzazz and all those other great American qualities’ INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
    Notes from a Small Island
    A eulogy to Bryson’s beloved Britain captures the very essence of the original ‘green and pleasant land’.
    ‘Not a book that should be read in public, for fear of emitting loud snorts’ THE TIMES
    A Walk in the Woods
    Bryson’s punishing (by his standards) hike across the celebrated Appalachian Trail, the longest footpath in the world.
    ‘This is a seriously funny book’ SUNDAY TIMES
    Notes from a Big Country
    Bryson brings his inimitable wit to bear on that strangest of phenomena – the American way of life.
    ‘ Not only hilarious but also insightful and informative’ INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
    Down Under
    An extraordinary journey to the heart of another big country – Australia.
    ‘Bryson is the perfect travelling companion ... When it comes to travel’s peculiars the man still has no peers’ THE TIMES
    A Short History of Nearly Everything
    Travels through time and space to explain the world, the universe and everything.
    ‘Truly impressive ..... It’s hard to imagine a better rough guide to science’ GUARDIAN
    The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
    Quintessential Bryson – a funny, moving and perceptive journey through his childhood.
    ‘He can capture the flavour of the past with the lightest of touches’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Also by
Bill Bryson
    The Lost Continent

    Mother Tongue

    Neither Here Nor There

    Notes from a Small Island

    A Walk in the Woods

    Notes from a Big Country

    Down Under

    African Diary

    A Short History of Nearly Everything

    Bryson’s Directory for Writers and Editors

Chapter 1
HOMETOWN
    S PRINGFIELD , I LL. (AP) – The State Senate of Illinois yesterday disbanded its Committee on Efficiency and Economy ‘for reasons of efficiency and economy’.

    – Des Moines Tribune, 6 February 1955
    I N THE LATE 1950S, the Royal Canadian Air Force produced a booklet on isometrics, a form of exercise that enjoyed a short but devoted vogue with my father. The idea of isometrics was that you used any unyielding object, like a tree or wall,