Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier by Hampton Sides

Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier Reviews

• 
  Lorna

  Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier is a wonderful anthology of selected articles written by Hampton Sides, noted historian and best-selling author, over the years reporting for the likes of Outside, The New Yorker, and National Public Radio. Hampton Sides has organized these non-fiction narratives into sections entitled American Originals; American Edens; American Rides; Americans By Birth, Southern by the Grace of . . . ; Americans Abroad; and American Obsessions. It is in this context that one can see a wide variation in the contemporary American landscape and the diverse and sometimes bizarre people that make up America from the skateboarding legend Tony Hawk to the radical Russell Means as part of the Native American Movement to a bass fishing tournament. There are powerful stories about veterans of World War II, including a moving piece on the Bataan Death March as well as the war in Iraq. One of the most moving pieces was the account of the events on September 11, 2001 as related by those who witnessed the devastation occurring at The World Trade Center and its aftermath.
  
  I was struck by Hampton Sides Introduction where he struggles to define what it is that makes America the vast and diverse country that it is. In 2004, he decided to organize his work into an anthology. And over the course of fifteen years the narratives were as random as his many magazine assignments but the varied themes he has captured enables us to have a wider grasp of this United States of America and to give us hope for the future.
  
  Since New Mexico is very dear to me, one of my favorite narratives in this anthology was the writing about Santa Fe and home to the author. I will end with Hampton Sides beautifully expressed thoughts on Santa Fe:
  
  "So what is Santa Fe, then? Historically, it's always been and end-of-the-line kind of place: the end of the Camino Real, the end of the Santa Fe Trail, the northern end of the desert, the western end of the prairie, the southern end of the Rockies. People who gravitate to Santa Fe--artists, chaos theorists, photographers, chefs and psychics--often tend to be the sort of people who could live almost anywhere but chose to live here because they've found inspiration, or solace, or even amusement in looking at the United States of America from what seems like a long way away. For living here does at times feel like living on an island surrounded not by the seas but by vast oceans of land. We're in America, but somehow separate from it. We're in our own little cyst, a dusty enclave of semi-expats who thrive on living at the end of line."
  
  "The Santa Fe style isn't so much an architecture, I now realize, as an anti-architecture, an unobtrusiveness of construction that gives the whole Sangre de Cristo mountain landscape--and what a landscape!--first billing."
• 
  Karen Germain

  My Friend Nicole passed this book my way and it was absolutely fantastic. Hampton Side’s “Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier” is comprised of thirty chapters, each reflecting on a different American subculture or perspective. The stories each vary drastically in tone, some taking more of a travel writer feel and some hardcore journalism.
  
  As with all collections, some pieces are bound to be more interesting than others, but I really don’t think that there was a low point in this book. The book has several highlights. In particular, I enjoyed “Waiting for Liddy”, “Sisters of the Bowl” and “This is Not the Place.” A majority of the chapters really made me envious of Sides and it made me want to sell everything, buy an airstream trailer and hit the road. America is fascinating!
  
  The best piece was “Points of Impact” which was the perspective of three World Trade Center survivors. It was completely affecting and absorbing. I can’t imagine that anyone would be able to read that chapter with a dry eye and without feeling completely lucky.
  
  I can’t praise this book enough and look forward to reading more of Hampton Sides.
  
• 
  Chris

  Eh.
  
  A bit disjointed at times. The book has no real driving narrative and the stories often only tangentially relate to Americans and their “americana” — a time capsule from a different era, for sure.
• 
  Martha

  He is my favorite writer of nonfiction. These essays cover a lot of ground and a lot of the world. He writes about fascinating people and places.
• 
  Anthony Whitt

  This book may be dated but the author is a master at capturing the essence of a good story. I found that a little historical perspective actually added to my enjoyment of the read.
• 
  Walter

  Americana by Hampton Sides is easy to read and interesting. The volume is composed of 30 short, non-fiction, people pieces. Each article offers a snippet of the kaleidoscope of the American character. Sides has a talent at choosing intriguing topics. Some of the topics are satirical, but, not with malice. Sides seems to attempt to bring understanding to each of the pieces by including lots of interesting facts. One piece, for example, on spelling bees and modern spelling contests includes a whole host of information on why the English language presents such spelling difficulties, and why English English and American English have evolved differently.
  
  Some of the topics are of a more realistic bent. One, on the first American death in the second Iraq war and another portraying the impact of the 9/11 - Twin Towers collapse on several individuals are some of the best prose pieces I have read. For just plain writing fun and humor, two of my favorite pieces characterize the annual "Hog" motorcycle conflagration at Sturgis, South Dakota; and Biosphere 2 in Arizona, at the two-year exit. Taken in aggregate these diverse glimpses of America portray the individualism of America. Sides choses two words to integrate these individual stories of American character: confidence and openness.
  
  Read this book. I think you will enjoy it.
• 
  Lee

  The introduction to this book is epic, eagle spreading his wings, firecrackers exploding over Fort McHenry. This introduction made me proud to be an American.
  
  And then you descend into the first essay, a sort of biography of Tony Hawk, American skateboarder. And frankly, it is just not that interesting. Maybe the other essays match the soaring rhetoric of the introduction, but, after slogging through much of the Tony Hawk essay, I was just not willing to find it.
• 
  Fred Forbes

  I must have been in the mood for essays after Bryson's book about the summer of '27 in America so this one was a nice continuation. A lot of different, interesting topics from "Airstreaming" retirees, to cavers to bass fishing. But probably the most powerful writing is on the experience of the those at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Pretty tough to come away from those stories with dry eyes.
• 
  Kate

  I thought this book was incredibly interesting. The anthology style means you get a brief glimpse at all kinds of different people and events, tons of which I wouldn't have read about otherwise.
  
  I would love to read a biography of Hampton Sides. He has definitely lived an interesting life.
• 
  Eric Wilson

  What's not to like? The writing is amazing, the subjects diverse and interesting. My only complaint is that these aren't original pieces, but previously published articles from over a decade.
• 
  John

  Though I rarely read an anthology, I found this one superb. It's a collection of 30 of author's magazine articles, mostly from the 1980s and 90s. For example, author travels with Mormons in Central America jungles in effort the prove the viability of the Book of Mormon. Results: zero. He embeds with Marines in Kuwait prior to the invasion of Iraq, but then, remembering his wife and three young sons back in the U.S., backs out at the last minute. He skateboards with the legendary Tony Hawk. He attends a Tupperware convention. His continued use of "gauntlet" for running through something rubs me the wrong way. Since a gauntlet is a glove, I cheer whenever I see an author use the more correct "gantlet."
• 
  Sam Dye

  There are many gems in this book that answer questions that I never thought to ask and some that I had asked but turned out I didn't know the first thing about. There were some that broadened my understanding of topics on which I had a good command. An example of the latter was "This Is Not the Place". I knew the problems with the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon in the Mormon theological pantheon but the way he investigated this subject by an deep study of Thomas Stuart Ferguson brought many facts to light. He even took trip with some Mormons to the area where many expeditions had been made searching (unsuccessfully) for geographical sites that would confirm the Book of Mormon historicity. His discussion of Santa Fe "At Home in a Fake Place" was priceless.
  
• 
  Dave Allen

  Really fun and interesting collection of reported works and essays. It still feels fresh despite the passage of time and the figures having less cultural currency. Two of the pieces - Points of Impact, about the 9/11 attacks, and First, about the first American fatality in the second Iraq War - are painfully vivid and unsettling, and I wouldn't recommend reading the 9/11 piece while flying on an airplane, as I did. (I had to put it down and finish it when I was back home, but it still shook me up.) Really honest and humorous depictions of both regular Americans and some more well-known figures. I'd be interested in checking out more of Sides' books on history - I thought of him as more of a historian based on his MLK writings.
• 
  Matt Tyler

  Even though this kind of book is not really my thing, I felt that I had to read American because Hampton Sides is my favorite author.
  
  As a collection of articles written from the early 90's to the early 00's, Americana is very different from his other books. Some articles were very enjoyable. In particular:
  
  The Birdman Drops In
  The Gay Eminence
  Jerusalem on the Mississippi
  Crawl Space
  A Murder in Falkner
  This is Not the Place
  Ghosts of Bataan
  Point of Impact
  First
  
  Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the book (and the reason I like Hampton Sides so much): 30 articles, vastly different in subject and tone, all so well written (though not all interesting to me).
• 
  Angela Oneal

  The author starts this book with an anecdote where he asks a Moroccan friend how he could spot an American. The friend responds, "Confident like you own the world. But open." The book is a series of stories that document American stories- from skate board culture to fundamentalist Christians. Overall, a good read.
• 
  Steve Bera

  This is a good author and I like his writing style. This is a book which is a collection of short stories he wrote primarily for Outside Magazine. The most current article is from 2003. A couple of the first articles were off the mark but I really enjoyed the remainder, even though they were dated.
• 
  Mam

  A well-written, delightful pot pourri of behind-the-scenes looks at quintessential American icons - the Tupperware phenomenon, bike couriers, old-school log canoe racers, and more. Some poignant, some funny, all interesting.
• 
  Matt Lieberman

  An uneven collection of magazine articles focusing largely on profiles of characters on the fringes of American society. The chapters on Marathon des Sables and the entire first section on "American Originals" including Tony Hawk and G Gordon Liddy were highlights.
• 
  Brian Beatty

  Magazine journalism is a dying art, in this era of listicles and clickbait links. Mr. Sides knows how to tell one hell of a story.
• 
  Marty Nicholas

  Late 90's early 2000's essays. Some really good. One of my favorite writers.
• 
  Steve Fox

  Another book by a journalist. It's a fun read, wandering through the musings of a fellow journalist who looks at things beyond what is obvious.