The United States is north woods and southern hospitality, east coast bustle and west coast mellow, midwestern charm and southwestern spice, Texas to Alaska, Maine to Hawaii, New York to California, and everywhere in between. The states are always ready for a road trip. Remarkably well-maintained highways provide infrastructure across national parks, cities, and small towns. The USA blends food, culture, and language from around the world. Come for summer nights at the local ice cream shop or a sea of skyscrapers. See the northern lights. Feel like another passing grain of sand in the Grand Canyon or listen deeply to the solitude of diverse American forests. The US has endless opportunity for camping, good eating, city sights, front porch sitting, and more. Just get in your car and go.
Places to Visit
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Harper Lee (1960), Movie (1962)
Race, justice, and childhood are central themes of To Kill A Mockingbird, set in a small town of the American South. It says much about American society and its structural inequalities, while also weaving a beautiful tale of small town southern life through the eyes of a young girl.
John Steinbeck (1939)
A bonafide American classic, Steinbeck takes you on an epic adventure with the Joad family. Set in the Great Depression, the family escapes dusty fields to the promised land of California - only to find the American Dream isn’t quite what was advertised.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
New York city during prohibition. America’s unsustainable rise through the Roaring 20’s. Fitzgerald pens a timeless classic of love and excess, bootlegging and loyalty. Take your pick on a movie with Robert Redford's Gatsby (1974) or Leonardo DiCaprio (2013).
Charles C. Mann (2005)
What were the Americas prior to Columbus’ journey of “discovery”? There were hundreds of Indian Nations across the continents in relative equilibrium with cultures and ecosystems. Read more about life before European conquest.
Henry David Thoreau (1854) & Walt Whitman (1855)
The American transcendentalist movement deeply impacted generations to come. Writings like Walden, Civil disobedience, and Song of Myself were foundational philosophical tenets to the conservation movement to Martin Luther King, Jr. or LGBTQ awareness.
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Movie (1996); TV Show (2014-2017)
A Midwest classic - small town North Dakota life takes on a murder mystery and Coen brothers' humor. And new life, with the 2014 TV series.
Movie (1972); Part 2 (1974)
The movie makes you an offer that you can’t refuse. The trilogy spans multiple generations of an Italian American mafia family. Famous names abound, from Marlin Brando to Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Many critics retain these movies as the best ever to be made.
Norman Maclean (1976); Movie (1992)
The quintessential Montana book. About fishing, family, and a life-affirming love for both. There is no book that better relays the joy of fly fishing and the beauty of Montana's many mountain rivers. The movie is pretty good too.
Margaret Mitchell (1936); Movie (1939)
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. Clark Gable lands one of the greatest one-liners in movie history. Scarlet O’Hara/Vivian Leigh remain American icons to this day. Gone with the Wind is a tale of love, independence, and the American south.
Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013)
A wonderful weave of indigenous and scientific ways of knowing. Set in “Maple Nation”, the author explores her relationship to nature, her native home, and connection between a botany career and Indian culture.
Annie Proulx (2000)
Some of the best short stories you’ll read, Proulx relates stories after years on the Wyoming plains, the USA’s least densely populated state, stronghold of ranchers and cowboys. Brokeback Mountain is devastating cowboy story. While the half-skinned steer gets dark and metaphysical.
Movie (1966)
A classic, “spaghetti western”, Sergio Leone created numerous westerns. The genre has become so popular that they reinvented a historical perception of "the west". They portray some truths but also spin a very specific narrative to the white frontiersmen. There were perhaps no two more famous than Clint Eastwood and John Wayne (i.e. Shane, the Searchers).
Movie (1939)
Jimmy Stewart is a freshman senator in the US Congress. The film immortalized the filibuster, as well as many idiosyncrasies and frustrations that have come to define American politics today.
Movie (1973)
Steven Spielberg has directed many American classics, perhaps none more evocative than this fishing tale that fomented an international fear of sharks. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”.
Herman Melville (1851)
Call me Ishmael. It’s the ultimate whaling book. An allegory of human nature, socio-ecological ties, and an homage to Biblical stories, Shakespeare, and more. Or simply, the vendetta of Captain Ahab against the great white whale who took his leg.
Aldo Leopold (1949)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot. A simple story of the woods and wild things of southern Wisconsin. A treatise on American land ethic. Aldo Leopold was a preeminent philosopher and leader in the American conservation movement.
Edward Abbey (1968)
Edward Abbey preached the ethic, “leave it as it was”. A staunch voice of the 1960’s conservation movement, few books describe desert wilderness better than “Desert Solitaire”.
Jon Berednt (1994); Movie (1997)
The true story begins as a vivid depiction of a quirky southern town with centuries-old pride and family wealth. Then morphs into a murder mystery, vodoo, and intrigue. It was a NY Times Bestseller and Clint Eastwood directed the movie.
Oral Tradition (1882 - 1958)
A lumberjack and Babe, the Big Blue Ox. Paul Bunyan represents the early American extractive mindset towards the mature hardwood forests of the north. Adventures in timber mills, flapjacks, and subzero temperatures.
Movie (1995)
Disney movies have dominated America's animated movie scene for decades. Toy Story is one of many classics, cowboy meets space ranger among the living toys in an average American suburb. Also try: the Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins.
Maya Angelou (1969)
Coming-of-age story that tells how love breeds strength that overcomes institutionalized racism in the USA. Angelou's poetry is also fantastic.
Movie (1958)
Hitchcock's epic tale of murder, ghost story, and obsession. The master of suspense is at it again. Perhaps his best psychological thriller - it morphs and heightens as it goes.
Movie (2000)
Set during high school racial integration in the south during the 1960's American civil rights movement. The movie highlights America's obsession with football and the sport's impact on a small Virginia town. It is a moving performance by Denzel Washington and rousing score that drive this true story.
Jack Kerouac (1957)
Some of the best road trip writing I can recall. And an allegory for the post-World War beatnik generation in America. Try some of his and Alan Ginsberg poetry as well.
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Movie (1994)
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get. Tom Hanks immortalized his legacy as the southern-born, cross-country traveling journeyman. Him and Jenny are like peas and carrots.
Bill Bryson (1998)
A Brit comes to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail on a multi-month journey. Bryson's tale is a hilarious experience of mistakes, adjustment, and thoroughly researched trail history of America's most famous, 2,000+ mile trail.
Stephen King (1977); Movie (1980)
Stanley Kubrick is one of the best filmmakers in American history. It may be the best horror - psychological thriller ever created. And it's also a Stephen King novel, another great American writer of the genre.
J.D. Salinger (1951)
Life through the eyes of an adolescent - struggling to grapple with his impending entrance to adulthood in New York City. Salinger is one of the greatest American writers.
Joseph Heller (1961); TV Show (2019)
Darkly comic and cynical. Meet the American regiment air force regiment flying bomber missions at the end of World War II from Spain's Mediterranean islands. It's a good mini-series too.
Movie (1994)
Tarantino burst into Hollywood with this innovative, non-linear story of two hit men, a boxer, a watch, and Zed. The witty dialogue made for an instant classic. And a new way of storytelling spurred future movies.
Alice Walker (1982)
The story traces the life of a poor, black woman from Georgia through her letters to her sister.
Broadway Show (2015 - present)
Meet one of America's Founding Fathers - a compelling immigrant story that ends with a duel. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, it's also full of catchy song and dance.
Movie (2016)
Another American Founding Father - Abraham Lincoln presided over the USA during the Civil War. His Gettysburg Address is one of several monuments immortalized on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis, the best method actor of his generation
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Jon Krakauer (1996); Movie (2007)
Krakeur is one of my favorite recent writers. He details the story of Alexander Supertramp, a young 20-something who leaves behind the middle-class suburbs for an adventure. Also an excellent movie.
Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)
A powerful narrative of what it means to be black in today's America. And a recent, extremely relevant book compared to the many white males of the American classics.
Dee Brown (1970)
American expansion west from the Native American point-of-view, though told by a white historian. It's a powerful counter narrative to manifest destiny.
A Few More Classics...
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Relevant to travel in the American South
A girl describes the little victories and disappointments of her childhood in the south as the book slowly leads up to a trial. The institutional racism of the American justice system is on full display in this novel - though there is hope and cynicism of the process.
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Relevant to travel in California & the southwest
The Grapes of Wrath narrates history of the central USA Dustbowl during the Great Depression - forcing thousands of small time farmers to flee to greener pastures. It’s a story of class and solidarity, one family trying to keep together in tough times.
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​New York, Bootlegging, & the Roaring 20s
The Great Gatsby takes on existential dilemma in the Roaring 20’s - moral questions of excess and love, alcohol prohibition, and new technologies rapidly changing American society. It’s the rising height of a modern New York City metropolis and an exquisite cast of characters, tied together with a memorable storyline.
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Nations of North America before European "discovery"
1491 is the year before Christopher Columbus sailed to the new world, effectively beginning a rush of conquest that would dominate North and South America for the next 500+ years. The book revises a colonial narrative of uncivilized tribes living in wilderness. It is a ground breaking book to understand native American history.
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New England, nature, and humanity
Transcendentalism still impacts American society: a tenet of land preservation, ideological movements like civil disobedience, and simple relationships between man and nature. You can still visit Walden Pond and Thoreau’s cabin outside Boston, Massachusetts, as well as many other transcendentalist sites scattered around New England.
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Travel through the Midwest
And experience one of the best accents, getting closer to Canada, eh? Fargo captures a pace of life, dialect, and winter in small towns across the northern plains. Though the upper Midwest is mostly forested, the plains start and don’t stop until the Rockies. Fargo is one of the largest “city centers” in the region. The focal point of this darkly comic murder mystery.
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One of the greatest movies ever made
The Godfather is a wonderful culmination of storytelling: the characters, plot line, famous cast - it’s the full package. And well-worth investing time into the multi-generational mafia saga.
The mountains, the plains, the rushing rivers, Montana is globally renowned for its fly fishing. Norman Maclean speaks about fly fishing as a religion and philosophy, a core part of his upbringing in western Montana. It's a must read if you like fishing, nature, or you're headed into Montana.
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Relevant to travel in the south, notably Atlanta
You won’t find the fictional Tara Plantation, but you can visit the Margaret Mitchell’s house. The novel describes the burning of Atlanta during General Sherman’s March to the Sea, as well as the changing fortunes of the former southern aristocracy. The movie is a classic.
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Try Flannery O'Connor's short stories for something a little darker in Georgia
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Maple Nation: Another side of New England
Venture into New England's interior to find miles of mixed hardwood forest and the occasional series of rugged mountain tops. The quiet charm of Vermont, backwoods of Maine, adventure in New Hampshire. Braiding Sweetgrass ties indigenous ways of knowing with science and western philosophy. It's a bridge between cultures, or perhaps a path forward in a historically extractive society.
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Wyoming, through and through
Tales of cowboys, livestock, and life on the open range. Visit Wyoming for two of the country's best national parks (Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons) but you'll find most of the state sparsely populated, occupied by small-time cattle ranchers over miles of sagebrush, like you'll find in Proulx's short stories. Brokeback Mountain was also turned into an Oscar-winning movie.
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The Wild West & the American Western
Another myth of the west, established through Hollywood and manifest destiny. While they aren't often historically accurate - they are plenty entertaining, so much so, the genre has been adapted and repeated worldwide. Here's a few of the best:
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Washington, D.C., Politicos
Congressional politics (the power, wealth, and cynicism) takes center stage of Jimmy Stewart's starring role as a freshman senator with hopes to change the system. He quite literally brought the filibuster back into fashion. And politics sure haven't changed much today. You can find some more comic cynicism in Veep.
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Travel Coastal New England
The fishing industry dominated north Atlantic coastal livelihoods for years. It has spawned some classic works of American art, from Moby Dick and the 1800’s whaling industry to the 1970’s Spielberg shark tale, Jaws, or even a more recent, "The Perfect Storm". You can still visit many relics of this history in places like:
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The Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts, or sail out to Nantucket Island
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Or adventure further inland into New Hampshire's rugged White Mountains or leaf peeping through many Appalachian valleys.
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Finally, try Little Women (movie or book) if you want the trials and tribulations of everyday heroines from the past.
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Relevant to travel in the Midwest, notably Wisconsin:
Sand County is beautifully described in this seminal work by Also Leopold. You may visit his cabin today, still in the same county. Many wild things remain as he described and many wild things are gone, as he predicted. It’s a thought-provoking book on nature.
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Travel America's southwestern deserts
Edward Abbey vividly describes the USA's deserts throughout the southwest, concentrated on a field season in Arches National Park. The flora, the fauna, people and the wilderness, Abbey ties it tall together. Check out the big 5 parks in Utah: Arches, Canyonlands, Capital Reef, Bryce, and Zion. But don't miss other spectacular parks like the Grand Canyon, Saguaro, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains, or Carlsbad Cavernsa
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My favorite book and town in the south: Savannah, GA
“If you go to Atlanta, the first question people ask you is, "What's your business?" In Macon they ask, "Where do you go to church?" In Augusta they ask your grandmother's maiden name. But in Savannah the first question people ask you is 'What would you like to drink?'”. Savannah is still small-town, southern charm, colonial architecture and exquisite sculptures, beneath a canopy of live oaks and Spanish moss. The book remains so popular that tours regularly visit sites in town and in Bonaventure Cemetery. You've got to read it.
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Travel America's northern forests
Logging was a way of life for early American pioneers. A mindset enabled by the seemingly limitless forest that were consumed in just a few decades. Stories of Paul Bunyan, and Babe, the Big Blue Ox - immortalize legends on the frontier. Hemingway also writes nostalgically about his own experiences through his Nick Adams short stories.
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Disney movies stole the heart of many generations
There are many who visit the USA to see the magic kingdom of Disney World. Though most have seen at least one movie from their nearly a century of classic movies. Try out Toy Story for a heartwarming story in the childhood rooms of suburban America. Or a few other classics: the Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Mulan, Frozen, Up, and more.
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An autobiography of race in America
Maya Angelou tells her story of overcoming racism and trauma as a child. It is an important perspective to understand throughout a literary history dominated by white perspective. Maya Angelou's beautiful writing will inspire the reader.
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The Master of Suspense meets Hollywood
Alfred Hitchcock is a legendary director, nicknamed, “The Master of Suspense”. Vertigo is one of his best movies - a ghost story that morphs into a murder mystery and something even darker. It takes place in the Bay Area, beneath Sequoias or the Golden Gate Bridge, and atop old mission church tower's - it’s a real aesthetic of northern California.
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America's obsession with football and a feel-good story
Another true story, Denzel Washington portrays a football coach who unites white and black players on a high school football team in Virginia. It's a feel-good story, full of strong performances. And you just can't beat the movie's classic rock soundtrack.
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Two classic American roadtrips
Well, kind-of an endless series of cross-country drives based on some true events in the lives of Keroauc and Alan Ginsberg, in On the Road. And few Americans have ever quite "felt like runnin'" like Forrest Gump. But both narratives are classic trails of cross-country road trips. Read Kerouac if you want insight on the beatnick generation and eloquent travel descriptions. And watch Tom Hanks if you want a feel-good moive that will bring tears of joy and sorrow. Or give two other types of road trips a try -
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Bonnie & Clyde - the true story of American outlaws on the run from police.
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Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid - another band of outlaws, headlined by best buds, Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
Hike Vicariously (& hilariously) on the Applachialain Trail
America's most famous trail - 2,000+ miles, crossing 14-states from Maine to Georgia - is beautifully described by Bryson's entertaining description of his first thru hike. Learn about trail history, ecosystems of Appalachia, and the hysterical misadventures of Bryson and Katz.
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The king of creepy horror stories
Stephen King has written dozens of downright terrifying tales. The Shining may be one of his creepiest - written after a stay in Colorado's Stanley Motel. It was also adapted by one of the greatest movie directors of all-time, Stanley Kubrick. Jack Nicholson is rightfully frightening and the story keeps you off-kilter from start to finish.
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A class coming-of-age tale in NYC
Many say that no book better captured a moment in time than Catcher in the Rye did with New York City in the 1950's. It's a classic novel, written by one of America's best authors.
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War meets black, darkly cyncial comedy
World War II isn't usually told from a semi-tropical Mediterranean beach but don't tell that to Yossarian, a frustrated fighter pilot caught in the Catch-22 of global warfare. It is one of the best (and definitely the funniest) anti-war novels.
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Tarantino and the independent movie
The independent movie industry found their poster child with the creative narratives of Quentin Tarantino. Love him or hate him, there is a unique signature that shapes every Tarantino movie. None are more innovative than the groundbreaking, laugh-out-loud, cringe, and white-knuckle plot of Pulp Fiction.
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Travel through rural Georgia
If you're passing through rural Georgia, The Color Purple is relevant. It's a graphic story of abuse, poverty, and the continued perseverance of a young black woman. Stephen Spielberg directed the movie. Two more southern stories include:
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In the Heat of the Night - a black detective from Chicago takes on a case in a small southern town.
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12 Years a Slave - the first black director to win an Oscar tells a true story of a free man being captured into slavery
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Meet 2 of America's Founding Fathers
Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln shaped the United States in very different ways about a century apart. Watch their story in:
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Hamilton - the Broadway musical phenomenon. The immigrant success story and tragic death in a duel ensures a juicy narrative, let alone the creative music by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It details the formation of the United States - from its separation with Britain to the Revolutionary War and early days of the young democracy.
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Lincoln - Daniel Day Lewis won an Oscar for his portrayal of one of the most salient American presidents. Lincoln was president for the trying times of Civil war between the north (the Union) and south (the Confederacy). It's an excellent movie for its historical retelling.
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Disillusionment, adventure, wilderness in America
Jon Krakeur is one of my favorite investigative journalists and authors. Into the Wild looks into the story of Alexander Supertramp, a young suburbanite who leaves behind a comfortable life, scholarship, and family for Alaska. It’s also a good movie.
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Being black in America today
A perspective on being black in America today. It’s also a direct response to consistent shootings across the United States. Coates is eloquent and insightful. He shares an important perspective in which to understand contemporary American society today.
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A Tribal history of the American West
The west is far more than what is shown in Hollywood westerns (which as a rule, should never be considered as history). The USA has been complicit in genocide of its Native Nations. Wounded Knee is a massacre in South Dakota perpetrated by the U.S. army. And this book provides a narrative often overlooked in American history, it is an Indian history of the American west.
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