Author Archives: matt

Book Details Title: Babbitt Author: Sinclair Lewis Publication Year: 1922 Genre: Satirical Novel / Realism Period: 1920s American Culture Detailed Summary Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt is a savage, iconic satire of American middle-class life in the 1920s. Set in the fictional … Continue reading →

Book Details • Title: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History • Author: John M. Barry • Publication Year: 2004 • Subject: The 1918 influenza pandemic and its impact on the development of American science and … Continue reading →

Book Details • Title: The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope • Author: Jonathan Alter • Publication Year: 2003 • Genre: History / Politics Detailed Summary • Jonathan Alter’s “The Defining Moment” provides a gripping narrative … Continue reading →

Book Details Title: A Farewell to Arms Author: Ernest Hemingway Publication Year: 1929 Genre: War Novel / Modernism Period: World War I (1914–1918) Detailed Summary A Farewell to Arms is one of the most powerful anti-war novels of the 20th … Continue reading →

Book Details Title: The Rise of Silas Lapham Author: William Dean Howells Publication Year: 1885 Genre: Realism / Novel Period: Late 19th Century Detailed Summary William Dean Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham is a cornerstone of American realism. It … Continue reading →

Book Details Title: The Grapes of Wrath Author: John Steinbeck Publication Year: 1939 Genre: Fiction / Social Realism Period: 1930s Detailed Summary John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is a defining work of American literature, chronicling the migration of the … Continue reading →

Book Details Title: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Author: Edmund Morris Publication Year: 1979 Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Biography (1980) Period: 1858–1901 Detailed Summary Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is the first volume of a definitive trilogy chronicling … Continue reading →

Book Details Title: The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. Author: Richard Hofstadter Publication Year: 1955 Genre: American History / Political Science Detailed Summary Richard Hofstadter’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Reform is a landmark study of American political … Continue reading →

Book Details Title: The Jungle Author: Upton Sinclair Publication Year: 1906 Genre: Fiction / Social Realism / Muckraking Period: Early 1900s Detailed Summary Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is a seminal work of investigative fiction that exposes the harrowing conditions within … Continue reading →

Book Details Title: The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Author: Robert Caro Publication Year: 1982 Genre: Biography / Political History Period: 1908–1941 Detailed Summary Robert Caro’s The Path to Power is a granular examination of the machinery … Continue reading →