Rate this book

Bunch Of Amateurs: A Search For The American Character (2012)

by Jack Hitt(Favorite Author)

3.38 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0307393755 (ISBN13: 9780307393753)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown

review 1: The larger thesis of this book - that amateurs matter - is great. The author has a good mixture of examples, from Benjamin Franklin as the quintessential example of American amateurs to modern "home-brewers" splicing yogurt genes. The slow, collective Internet-based debunking of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker sightings ruined my day. Not the most amazing non-fiction I've read, but very sociological and worth your time.
review 2: The prologue to this book makes it sound as if it is going to be a search into the heart of what being an amateur is, particularly in these days where new technology is offering so many opportunities for individuals to interact with - and sometimes go to war with - the officially sanctioned systems. Hitt announces that he's going to explo... morere a specific facet of the American character, and explain what makes us a nation of experimenters.This is not that book.This is a series of longish essays clumped around a similar theme, and not any sort of rigorous argument. I get why the stories of the ivory billed woodpecker hunters are lumped together with the biohacker who is trying to manufacture glow in the dark yogurt in their apartment - but I don't think that those isolated examples say too much about what America as a whole is, nor do I think that they do much to paint a definitive portrait of what amateur-ness is.Which is not to say that the book isn't interesting or informative; it is. But Hitt's history as a contributor to This American Life makes perfect sense after reading this book, because that radio show tends t dance around it's themes without really pushing any strong conclusions one way or another, and that's more or less what Hitt does here. The difference is that I have lower expectations for an hour long radio show; I expect it to entertain me and inform me, but not necessarily exhaustively so. Books, however, are a different ballpark, and the same approach in a book format left me feeling like I'd read something kind of inconsequential.The material that is here is solid, and I enjoyed learning more about Ben Franklin and about Kennewick man. But I do feel like there's a longer more complete version of this book somewhere out in the ether which would be a lot more satisfying. less

Download links for: Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character

Advertising