This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History
4.1 | 17 ratings
Price: 25.74
Last update: 04-24-2026
Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster
- Publication date : April 7, 2026
- Language : English
- Print length : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1668033100
- ISBN-13 : 978-1668033104
- Item Weight : 15.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank:#1,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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- Customer Reviews:4.54.5 out of 5 stars(2)
Top reviews from the United States
- J. SundayHighly intriguing!If you have time to read just one book this year, this is an excellent choice.
Beverly Gage is a professor of history at Yale University. She could easily write a massive book with her knowledge. Yet, she decided to take a different approach with a road trip visiting historic sites including museums, battlefields, parks, monuments and roadside attractions. They’re not necessarily your normal tourist places which makes it more interesting.
The book starts with President Washington in 1789. She shares some of the immense amount of history with the 13 colonies. She covers distressing parts with the slaughter of thousands of Native Americans to obtain their land, the war on Mexico in 1846 and the sad treatment of slaves. In later chapters, she includes Martin Luther King and his powerful speeches.
She covers Henry Ford’s progressive car manufacturer and how he brought immigrants to work in the Detroit area factories. It became well known that Ford was antisemitic supporting Hitler. Sadly, five protesters were killed.
The author addresses how the federal government developed military programs to create special weapons at different places in the country. She touches on Oppenheimer’s work with the team on the atomic bomb. Rather than stay at a nice hotel or camping ground, she decided to experience a night in a restored missile silo in New Mexico.
The federal government hasn’t been kind to some immigrants. During the war, American citizens who happened to be Japanese were sent to “prison camps’ in the early 1940s. We can’t read about this without thinking we are all immigrants and how many groups have been unfairly treated.
And finally, she reviews the politics of California with the conservative southern side of Presidents Nixon and Reagan while northern liberal groups were promoting equal rights for women and gays as well as free speech. At the same time, Black Panthers were fighting about police brutality and poverty.
Our past history as noted has many parts that are disturbing. There’s a great deal about racial injustice. When will we learn? Throughout the book she adds photos and at the end, there is an extensive list of recommended books. It’s no wonder she is a scholar. Yet, she writes as if you were listening to a friendly person at a coffee shop who shares what she knows.
She said that the powerful people in Washington want to suppress history but do they understand it? There are many ways of looking at the cruelty over the years: truth or the blind eye? I could feel it when she said “hope” at the end for a better future. Isn’t that what most of us want?
My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC. The views I share are my own. - Mystery AddictEngaging offbeat American history3.75 stars
This engaging informal U.S. history hits seemingly random spots across the country via road trip, an entertaining notion. Historian Beverly Gage presents a lot of great factual and anecdotal information in a very accessible format.
The places listed are not necessarily related, and certainly not all inclusive, but they each explore an interesting time or setting. She covers everything from the Los Alamos nuclear site to presidential libraries and the civil rights Freedom Trail. This was a fun but also provocative read.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.