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The United States of America is not one of the ancient civilisations, having only been inhabited in a meaningful form since the seventeenth century. Yet, despite its youth, and with only 5% of the world’s population, the USA has given birth to more new products, devices, medicines, leisure pursuits, sports, music and vehicles than any other country, ancient or modern. Born in the USA reveals most of them in a single book, and identifies some surprising inventors along the way (Steve McQueen; George Washington; Marlon Brando; Abraham Lincoln; Lee Trevino and Michael Jackson – to name a few).
Thousands of ‘things’ have been discovered, invented, conceived and developed by its citizens, and the relentless pace of the new is, if anything, quickening.
More Nobel prize winners (305) in the fields of science and medicine have come from America than any other country, and alone among the nations, a few of its citizens have ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’, and visited another planetary body. Only those born in the USA have been out of the orbit of the Earth. No other country has even tried.
This book celebrates that pioneering drive which powers the USA.
Uniquely among the nations, we even know the name and date of birth of the first child who was literally ‘born in the USA’. If he could be alive today, Martin de Arguelles, descended from an ancient family of shipbuilders, would be astonished and justly proud to view the legacy his heirs now enjoy.
Hinting that genius and madness may not be too far apart, there are also grouped some of the most bizarre and comic inventions ever dreamed up. The same country that gave the world the heart pacemaker and email, also gave us the Ash Can School of Art and the Denver Boot.
From Bubble Wrap and Bubblegum, to Burglar Alarms and the Bill of Rights; from men-on-the-Moon and Monopoly, to microwave ovens and M & M’s, Trevor Homer’s new book, a companion to the successful Book of Origins, reveals surprising American creations, not just of everyday objects, but of some of the most world-changing, and far-reaching ‘stuff’ imaginable. Digging into the corners of American history (Rock & Roll/space stations/Ku Klux Klan), Born in the USA reveals the hidden areas in which America has led the way.
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