Twenty-five Books That Shaped America: How White Whales, Green Lights, and Restless Spirits Forged Our National Identity – An Entertaining and Enriching Guide to Literature, Culture, and Citizenship

by Thomas C. Foster

From the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Read Literature Like a Professor comes a highly entertaining and informative new book on the twenty-five works of literature that have most shaped the American character. Foster applies his much-loved combination of wit, know-how, and analysis to explain how each work has shaped our very existence as readers, students, teachers, and Americans.

Foster illuminates how books such as The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, My Ántonia, The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon, Their Eyes Were Watching God, On the Road, The Crying of Lot 49, and others captured an American moment, how they influenced our perception of nationhood and citizenship, and what about them endures in the American character. Twenty-five Books That Shaped America is a fun and enriching guide to America through its literature.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, History, Literary Criticism, Literature, Essays, Reference

323 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2011

About the author

Thomas C. Foster is Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint, where he teaches classes in contemporary fiction, drama, and poetry as well as creative writing and composition. Foster has been teaching literature and writing since 1975, the last twenty-one years at the University of Michigan-Flint. He lives in East Lansing, Michigan.

In addition to How to Read Novels Like a Professor (Summer 2008) and How to Read Literature Like a Professor (2003), both from HarperCollins, Foster is the author of Form and Society in Modern Literature (Northern Illinois University Press, 1988), Seamus Heaney (Twayne, 1989), and Understanding John Fowles(University of South Carolina Press, 1994). His novel The Professor's Daughter, is in progress.

Foster studied English at Dartmouth College and then Michigan State University, moving forward from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the twentieth in the process. His academic writing has concentrated on twentieth-century British, American, and Irish figures and movements—James Joyce, William Faulkner, Seamus Heaney, John Fowles, Derek Mahon, Eavan Boland, modernism and postmodernism. But he reads and teaches lots of other writers and periods: Shakespeare, Sophocles, Homer, Dickens, Hardy, Poe, Ibsen, Twain.

Author photograph courtesy of HarperCollins.

Reviews

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers love books about books and this one is a gem. Foster makes it clear that this is not 'the' list of 25 books that shaped America, but 'a' list.
Some of his favorites are Moby Dick, The Maltese Falcon, The Great Gatsby (mine as well) and others while significant are not. His least favorites include The Last of the Mohicans and The Scarlet Letter.
Other additional titles he includes are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, My Antonia, The Adventures of Augie March, The Cat in the Hat, Song of Solomon and Love Medicine.
Foster's delight in elucidating their significance, whether well written or not is contagious. He is very adept at describing why they are so influential. My favorite is his discussion of how Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon spawned numerous detectives; Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer, Spenser, Easy Rawlins, Travis McGee, Jack Reacher, Carlotta Carlisle, Kinsey Mulhone, and VI Warshawski. Clearly, hard boiled detectives come in both genders. Many film and television adaptations found their basis in Sam Spade as well, like Dirty Harry Callahan, Peter Gunn, Jim Rockford, Magnum PI and Harry Orwell to name a few.
Each chapter is cleverly titled. 'I've Been Working on the Whale-Road' for Moby Dick, 'The Bird is the Word' for The Maltese Falcon and 'Girls Gone Mild' for Little Women.
You have to love Foster's sardonic prose and his authentic assessment of exactly what constitutes the GAN (Great American Novel). As this is not the definitive list, he offers 15 overlooked GAN's some of which are; Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Red Badge of Courage, The Age of Innocence, Catcher in the Rye, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The House on Mango Street.
This is a book you'll want in your own personal library as a valuable resource and an enjoyable read.

[Eliza · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5

First off, I didn't read the whole book. I was only required to read a few sections for class - and the few sections that I did read, well, they weren't too good... His writing doesn't grab my attention. His sections are informative, yes. But not necessarily a "new" perspective on anything he's talking about.

Therefore, I didn't think it was great. Honestly, it was pretty much a waste of my time to read about things I already knew. Sorry, Foster.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

June 2025 Review
Rereading this years later, I still maintain that Foster is a skilled writer. The sass and sarcasm that I loved about How to Read Literature Like a Professor is here too. Many of his references go over my head, but I catch enough of them to enjoy his rambles. Glad I revisited this, and now it's time to pass it on to be enjoyed by someone else.

August 2017 Review
I love Foster's writing. It's like a chummy brilliant English professor rambling at you. Lots of English major love right here.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This list is actually 26 books (two Robert Frost collections are merged as one entry) and 15 additional suggestions in the afterward.

Foster's intro tries to define criteria for his system. He states, "A book is the end point of the efforts of a great many people, only one of whom typically gets a name on the title page." (vii) In the "business of the myth," Foster is that person according to his definition. It's quite the catch 22. (Pick it up! Pick it up! Pick it up!)

Foster notes A Million Little Pieces fooled Oprah. Andre Dubus III has also gone on record to suggest never to fabricate memoir via A Million Little Pieces (dually noted).

Reflecting on HDT, Foster writes, "One can hardly imagine what he would have made of Facebook or Twitter or the objects that make them possible." (44)

When writing about Huck Finn as a literary pioneer, Foster concludes, "One of the great accomplishments of the novel is freeing writers to make use of dialect and colloquial expression in the pursuit of 'serious writing '" (104)

I guess some of the elites were late bloomers: "Robert Frost was no enfant terrible when he published his first books of poetry. Born in 1874, he was thirty-nine years old the year A Boy's Will was published in 1913." (109)

On the green light and Gatsby, Foster writes, "Daisy is simply not worth the effort Gatsby makes to win her over, nor are his successes anything to write home about." (143)

This was a fresh slap of reality to the face.

The chapter on To Kill A Mockingbird raised several personal questions. Would you be content writing only one great and financially successful book? Absolutely. As long as I could reach some semblance of equilibrium.

How do ethics play into fiction and memoir? Who decides what is "right"? Someone should write a book called, The Ethics of Jihad.

There is complaint about Lee's lack of follow up work, but I'm pretty sure Go Set a Watchman (even as an original draft to Mockingbird) is a fairly neoteric publication.

Dill was modeled after Truman Capote, which I never knew.

Lastly, Foster writes, "Is Beloved really better than Moby Dick?" (322)

With all due respect to Morrison, I firmly disagree.

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is, for the most part, a decent list of books that may have helped shape America. I read 13 of them, 6 of them for school. Of course, he may have persuaded me not to read one of them which is currently on my shelf, The Crying of Lot 49. Reminded me that I have been lax in my re-reading of Moby-Dick or, the Whale - started a year or two ago and am only on page 35, they haven't even left port yet.

I was going to argue with the list but looking at it now - not sure what I would remove from it. There is one Native writer and two African-Americans. Otherwise, it does look pretty white bread. But how can you argue with a list that includes Dr. Seuss with the only book of his that I am sure that I read - The Cat in the Hat! As a little girl, I even had this book.

Also has some favorites - Twain, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Hammett - it drove me to finish a short biography I had of his early years (The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett), Steinbeck (on my re-read of The Grapes of Wrath I only have about 10% to go), Faulkner (but not one I have read, Go Down, Moses), and others.

Even he doesn't really want to talk about The Scarlet Letter and I'm not sure he was that enthused about Moby Dick. The one that surprised me was Jack Kerouac's On the Road which I didn't like at all. But thinking of the title of the book I can see why he included it. I'm thinking that maybe I came to Kerouac at the wrong time. My brother and sister were wild for him in the '60s. But I didn't give him a try until MY 60s.

It included Harper Lee but no Salinger, not even an honorable mention. His name only even came up in a discussion about Pynchon's reclusiveness. But you can't include everybody.

This book was probably actually 3 1/2 stars but I bumped it up.

[Stephen Hoogerhyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foster has done it again: written an engaging book that will appeal to anyone who likes good fiction. His expressed intent here is not to list the best books written by Americans, but those that had a hand in shaping who we are as a country and a culture. Consequently, the books he choses are "illustrative, not definitive." He also warns that "not every excellent book is here, but the books here are excellent."

So, you can expect to see the oft-discussed classics: The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and To Kill A Mockingbird, to name a few. You will also find poetry (Whitman's Leaves of Grass), a book not so well known as the movie based on it (Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, chosen because Sam Spade is the model for all subsequent detectives), and a children's book (The Cat in the Hat, chosen because it changed reading for the younger ones in a huge way).

Some of the books he choses are from well-known authors, but are not necessarily those that are most often thought of as the author's best or greatest. For Hemingway, he chooses The Sun Also Rises, not For Whom the Bells Toll. For Faulkner, he chooses Go Down, Moses, not The Sound and the Fury. And for Toni Morrison, he chose The Song of Solomon, not Beloved.

Foster is an excellent travel companion and guide through the literary landscape. I enjoyed his perspective on the books, and purchased a few that I had not read because of his review (full disclosure: I had previously read 10 of the 25). Some of his reviews convinced me that I really have no desire to read a particular author's work (I'm looking at you, Thomas Pynchon). He also addresses the question: which, or what, is the Great American Novel?

Recommended not only for those who love American literature, but also for those who are interested in the development of the American culture and character.

[Christine Boyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Thought it would be too dry and boring, but not at all. Wish this guy had been MY literature professor! This was a funny, lighthearted approach to examining and analyzing some great American authors and their works. He starts with Ben Franklin's autobiography (1791) and ends with Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine (1984). Mr. Foster stresses in his introduction that this is NOT a "best of" compilation or a "top selling" list. It is a look at books - well, actually, a look at WRITERS who changed writing and/or changed the way we read novels, plays, and poems throughout the years. A must-read for anyone who likes to discuss and analyze literature. PS: I read some G.R. reviews where folks were upset that the author tells the plot of the stories. I would have assumed people would have guessed that that might happen, but okay, spoiler alert: You WILL learn what happens to Hester Prynne, Jo March, Huck Finn, Jay Gatsby, Jake Barnes, and Scout Finch!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. Generally I don't like list books, for the reason that I usually disagree with the list and want my own favorites to make an appearance, but he's smart (and humble) enough in the beginning to say that his list is not remotely definitive, and that he reserves the right to write and break the rules. Which is fair enough. Any objective criteria applied to this endeavor would be idiotic.

A few thoughts:

It seemed, a number of times, that he was less focused on a book as much as an author. It seemed like "Go Down Moses," "Song of Solomon," and "The Sun Also Rises" were all chosen more because he wanted an appearance by Faulkner, Morrison, and Hemingway, rather than he thought these books legitimately shaped our collective identity. Other times, he makes the right choice in that regard (Huck Finn, On the Road), without bowing to an author he particularly liked. Not to say that Hemingway wasn't incredibly influential on American writing, just that it seems like he picked The Sun Also Rises because it was Hemingway's first, rather than its individual impact (I think A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea could all beat out his first in that regard).

And I'm doing what I promised myself I wouldn't do: naming my choices instead. The only other thing I'll note for the time being is that this guy is obviously an English professor, so what you get from him is going to be very literary. Popular books don't make as much of an appearance: it's mostly serious literature - with the exception of The Cat in the Hat - so don't expect anything that wouldn't be on a required reading list.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foster has written several "Literature for Dummies" type of books, so the tone is presumably carefully calibrated by him and his editors to seem non-threatening. By the time the third occurrence of the word "verisimilitude" was accompanied by a clause reminding you of its meaning, I got the picture. The explanations of metric feet do not even pretend you remember whatever you learned in school. I'm sure Foster is an engaging teacher and popular with his students, but in print the endless popspeak colloquialisms, needlessly dramatic three-word sentences, cultural cliches (the French eat snails!) are a bit wearying. However, they eventually give way to what strikes me as quite excellent criticism and insights into books that one should indeed have read.
In addition to the 25 featured books, there's an appendix of 15 more, so those, like me, who like to measure their literary accomplishment against lists have a useful benchmark!

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is perfect for a project my AP students do, which is why I picked it up. It was interesting--but the book cover says these are the books that helped shape our national identity, so I was more than a little disappointed that he didn't talk about that. At all. When discussing any of the books.

Yes, he talked about the "American-ness" of the books. Some he explained how they shaped future writers. But he never tackled what he promised--a discussion of how specifically each book created the myth of America and shaped our collective consciousness/identity. His essay on The Cat in the Hat came closest with its discussion of how Seuss shaped American childhood education and literacy. But that's hardly an identity.

Since that's what I was specifically looking for--to use as potential models for my students--I was a little let down.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting to listen to while walking dogs, but not a book I'd recommend for reading. Read the actual books discussed instead. Be forewarned, if you haven't read the books being discussed, the entire plot is revealed for each book.

[Cherie Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like taking a great literature class. Foster explains what
You should have gleaned from these 25 great works.

[Craigtator · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then I need a book like this, written by someone that clearly loves reading great fiction, to reinvigorate my own love.

[Loralee · Rating 3 out of 5]

He's really fun to read.

[Vel Veeter]

One of the best books I've read in the last few years is Nathaniel Philbrick's "Why Read Moby Dick?" A confession, I love Moby Dick and I am always looking for an excuse to reread it. Something someone once told me is that they love Middlemarch and that they are always reading Middlemarch. I feel the same way about Moby Dick, As I Lay Dying, and a few other books. That I am always just in-between re-readings of those books. That's what "Why Read Moby Dick?" does, if you're inclined, to get you excited to read Moby Dick. In a way much more writ large, that's what Foster is doing in this book. He's giving you a list of American books that cannot be ignored as influences, even if you choose not to read them. That because of these books, something in the American character (as in, nationally) or as he puts it, the American mythos is forever changed. You could probably guess most of these books if you've engaged remotely in the topic of the most influential books in American history. There's a heavy bias toward fiction and poetry, but that's not all of it, and it's mostly a book free from political ideology, as much as any book can be. Foster is probably broadly liberal in general, and comes across always more of a cheerleader than a polemicist like Harold Bloom or a William F Buckley type. Foster is also very good and admitting limits and biases on his own. He doesn't like The Scarlet Letter. Great! He has limits in understanding Pynchon. Great! All good. His whole thing is always about ways of providing access, and by admitting some of these things himself, he continues that project.

[Mike Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the 25 works included in the book, there were the expected ones, like Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huck Finn, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Walt Whitman's The Leaves of Grass, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, The Maltese Falcon, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Robert Frost, the unexpected but known (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The Cat in the Hat, Kerouac's On the Road), and several that I had never before heard before (Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine).

I noticed one common theme in the choice selection, maybe something that wasn't really there, but one that I seemed to pick up on, is that the author, Foster, prefers the loose, plot-less books & short story collections which he prefers to call novels.

The most entertaining reads were the chapters on The Cat in the Hat and To Kill a Mockingbird. I also found, with some exceptions, that the chapters that contained books I had read were easier and or more enjoyable reads than those chapters about works I had never heard of before. As mentioned, there are exceptions.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book and am stunned to discover I read in 2016. I again found the book interesting (but how interesting could it be if I can't remember that I read it). As of now I have read 16 of the 25 titles listed.

Foster emphasizes that these are merely 25 books of his choice which had significance. For example, The Last of the Mohicans was an important first big novel written by an American which gathered a large readership in Europe, but he doesn't like the book. These books, according to the author, are not even necessarily the best book the author wrote. What these books did was change how Americans understood themselves or their country. Many are important by how much they influenced other writers. (e.g. Hemingway) I may, or may not, read the other nine books he lists, but I will know how these books connect to each other and to our shared vision of America.





I learned much reading this book. most of all I learned of some of the many books I ought to read. Many insights into books I have read. Though there are plot spoilers, I don't think they will impair my enjoyment when I get around to reading these.

[Madelyn Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foster’s book shows how America(ns) made these books what they are and how these books made America(ns) what she is and we are. We have a different yet rich history in literature that is still being formed. That is part of what makes it American literature. Our literature is new, innovative, boundary-pushing, revolutionary, fiercely independent, and (the good ones at least) full of a desire to learn, teach, and make us better. These authors sought to preserve what was to teach contemporaries and descendants alike, to forge new paths both in literature and in our beloved country. Foster’s book is full of new insights and helpful instructions on reading books in their proper context. It’s a book about books. And if you love books and love reading, and you still like to learn, this is the book for you.

https://madelynrosecraig.com/2024/08/...

[Naftoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incisive, witty, literary, and, at times, apothegmatic, Foster's "Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America," is absolutely a joy and a delight to read. He writes with the knowledge and authority of a professor yet he captures the humor and irony of the American novels he presents. With a clever turn-of-phrase and a legion of relevant allusions, he tenaciously holds the reader's interest from one analysis to the next. Whether or not one has read the books he critiques is immaterial; his reviews are sassy and sanguine, thrilling and thrashing, and surprisingly sublime. I am biting at the bit to read his other two books!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may be a book only English majors and teachers would want to read. The author freely admits that his choice of 25 books (novels and poetry) is arbitrary, but he does a very good job of submitting his reasons, offering plot synopsis and character analysis, and expounding on how that book or volume of poetry did influence subsequent writers as well as shape societal views. Is it deep literary theory and social commentary? No. But neither is it light. Foster not only knows his material, but he presents what could be deadly dull with humor, and his book made me realize I need to revisit some of these classics as well as read those I have missed.

[Terrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foster claims this is not THE top 25 books, only 25 of the many. I really enjoyed the chapters on the books I had read, especially HUCK FINN, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,and THE CAT IN THE HAT. My favorite chapter was the one on THE MALTESE FALCON, which I have not read. It was interesting to hear the reason why, for that book, it is the standard form of all mysteries. Other books I had never heard of, which makes me feel plain stupid. I immediately read MY ANTOINA after reading that chapter. This is a great addition for my personal library.

[Tom Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a former English teacher who spent a good long while exposed to American lit in an academic setting, this one appealed to me a little bit more than it might for others.

3.5 stars out of 5. An above average example of intertextual literary criticism and much more fun and accessible than I'd expected. This is a fine way to drum up a few talking points on some of the great American books and will be appreciated by bookworms, I'm sure, but I'd bet that if you haven't already read these books you'll want to pass and return to this one later.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable essays about 25 books which Foster thinks contribute to the US's national identity. It's hard to argue his point, especially when one is laughing so hard. Perhaps my favorite line in the whole book was in Foster's discussion of Little Women, where he says, "And who isn't ready for a lesson when the canary dies?" Some of his selections stuck me as odd, and some have long been on my TBR list but most of them were old friends. Well worth reading.

[Becky Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay book. Some of the information was really interesting, but after taking about 5 Lit classes in college, I was able to build my own opinion about some of the classics and didn't really agree with Foster on most of them. I liked his other books (How to read Literature like a Professor, and How to Read a Novel Like a Professor) but this one was kind of a let down.

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the 25 books, I have read 13. I own another 8 on my Shelf of Constant Reproach, and four I don't own - Song of Solomon, USA, Little Women and The Weary Blues (although I may have the e-read on the latter two). I skipped the plot summaries of some of the 8 books I plan to read sooner than later.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I enjoyed the book, I wanted more analysis and less plot summary. To be fair, I had read the majority of the books he chose for his twenty-five. I, however, do think the book would be a good one for somebody starting his or her own study of important American novels.

[Dianne Landry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm too old to read textbooks and this is what this one felt like. I only read a couple of chapters but other than rehash the plot of the book, including spoilers there was very little of interest in them.

Skip this book and read the talks about instead.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty, entertaining and refreshingly irreverant. It will make you think about the books you have read and all the books you want to read.

[Steve Fox · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sure there is value in this to someone, but I just wasn't into it.

[Nancy Cook-senn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Foster: "Significant American books and why I don't like them... except Huck Finn."