America - A Guide to the Experience.

By David Stuart Ryan.

The Rockies at sunset, Utah, photo: David Stuart Ryan

Author David Stuart Ryan travelled more than 10,000 miles by road researching this book during three extended tours of the USA. He is a prize winning poet in the US, and has previously published a Guide to the Experience book about India. He read Ancient History and Philosophy at King's College, London University.

The book contains more than 100 original photographs many in full color.

It can be ordered by by e mail direct from Kozmik Press. Price $30 paperback (ISBN 0 905116 17 8). $45 hardback (0 905116 16 X). 144 large format pages.
When you contact us to order by email we will ask for your credit card details and then deliver by mail.

A reviewer's words on the book and the experience

"The book gives an up to date impression of America often with an emphasis on the slightly off-beat. All aspects of American life are covered, from cowboy country to the burial of the unknown soldier from Vietnam in Washington, from Dallas to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Mexico Way and Mardi Gras have attention as do the surfing beaches and Daytona speedway.

The reader will discover just how diverse the USA is and the book paints a vivid picture of the 'real' America unlike many other travel guides.

David Stuart Ryan travelled over 10,000 miles researching this book during three extended tours of America. He is one of America's prize winning poets.

The photographs in the book are truly impressive and each is an original that has never before been published.

Altogether a most enjoyable book and one which it will be a pleasure to re-read.'

A review from 'The Book Exchange"

"I look forward to reading it' - President Bill Clinton

Chapter 23.

MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA

 It is a bright sunny day in north Florida. Valentine's Day. The waitress has a heart in lipstick on her cheek but is not outwardly cheerful. The road northwards is quiet, many of the cars have an Ohio, Indiana or Michigan destination - some 1,700 miles to the north. In these states there are heavy falls of snow that have cut off towns, bus drivers are refusing to take their vehicles out. The snow hit northern Georgia too, especially in their mountains but down south it simply gradually gets colder and cloudy. A perfectly white cat sits at the side of the road. It is the heart of the old Confederacy. Not too much of its legacy is left unless you include the extraordinary interregnum of the Carter presidency when a southern earnest morality briefly held sway at the White House. After the excesses of Vietnam and Watergate the whole nation became as disenchanted with Federal government as the South has always been in living memory.

The old South...there are road signs pointing to plantation houses...where the old southern aristocracy amassed a staggering wealth from a single crop...King Cotton...and the free labour of the slaves. Today, the South East is once again the fastest growing area of the USA, the new fortunes founded on post-industrial technologies. IBM has some of its major offices here...as does the oil industry...Ted Turner with his Cable Network News...Coca Cola with its HQ in Georgia.

'It's that Federal Government,' moans the man in the general store in Macon. The old bitterness remains...especially in Georgia. Here you can see examples of pre-bellum architecture that survived General Sherman's notorious march to the sea when he cut a 60-mile swathe of destruction and misery on his journey from Atlanta. That, and subsequent plunder, reduced the South to abject second-class economic status for over 100 years. It took a peanut farmer to arise and apply the balm of reconciliation to a nation once again split in two by Vietnam.

But you could argue that Reagan too was a continuation of the celebration of old American values - except that his came from a later period. That of the 19th century immigrants who opened up the mid-West, who farmed the plains and saw the wealth grow out of the soil in return for hard effort. They were part of the great push westwards that came to a stop in California, where Reagan like millions before him was part of the enactment of the American dream in those beautiful lands beyond the Rocky Mountains.

This final push to the sea took place in the aftermath of the Civil War., the years 1860-1890 were the source of all those western stories and heroes which Hollywood commemorated. It was the most lawless of times, when personal freedom (the rallying cry on both sides in the Civil War) saw out its most extravagant interpretations. It led to the dispossession of the red man, as forts preceded settlers who grabbed the land. To them the land lay undeveloped.

Standing high above a pass which leads on through Colorado to Nevada, to Arizona, to California and finally the sea. My native American guide looks down with me. We see the wagon trains below pouring into the great empty spaces of America. All roads for nearly a century have been leading to this promised land of California, the wealthiest state in the nation.

The contents of the 33 chapters in

America - A Guide to the Experience

A starlet at the Museum of Rock Art, Hollywood.

1. Mean Streets. Washington DC.
2. American Affluence. Georgetown and the rich.
3. The American Way. American business.
4. Washington - A capital city. The burial of the unknown soldier from Vietnam.
5. Blue Highways. Ocean County, New Jersey.
6. New York, New York. Head office splendour.
7. New England. The Puritan vision. Boston's history.
8. The Great Trek West. Sacred trails at Niagara Falls. Canada. Ohio. Cleveland, Toledo. Michigan.
9. Following the Pioneers. Chicago and Detroit.
10. Storm Warning. A tornado hits NE Nebraska.
11. Cowboy Country. The Rockies, Colorado and New Mexico.
12. Julie's Denver Performance. Denver and the Red Rock amphitheatre.
13. Show Me the Way to Amarillo. The Texas panhandle. Oklahoma. James River.
14. Nashville, Tennessee. George Jones and the Gran' Ol' Oprey.
15. Atlanta, Georgia. The heart of the Confederacy.
16. Down in Louisiana. Vicksburg and the Civil War. Baton Rouge. The Mississippi River delta.
17. Dallas. Oil and insurance money. The Alamo. The carpetbaggers. The White Plaza Hotel. Cajuns.
18. As Big as Texas. An Indian reservation, East Texas. Lifestyle statistics -suicide, homicide, longevity.
19. Mardi Gras. Jazz origins. The Storyville red light district. New Orleans.
20. The Gulf. North Lido beach. Florida panhandle. Florida's mean temperatures.
21. Sarasota. Tampa Bay. Clayton Thomas, lead singer with Blood Sweat and Tears.
22. The Daytona Speedway 500. Race practice. John Watson, British champion. Disneyworld. St Augustine.
23. Marching through Georgia. The Suwannee River. The old South. The Wild West. A native Indian guide sees the settlers move in.
24. I Left My Heart in San Francisco. The Vietnam War protester and shoe shine worker. Fisherman's Wharf. The California defence industries.
25.' No, San Francisco People Are Never Boring.' City Lights Bookshop. Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Neal Cassidy (hero of On The Road) photo, John Calder, Andrei Voznesensky. The Beat Movement. American literature.
26. Monterey and Big Sur. Cannery Row, John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Orson Wells, Rita Hayworth. A fatal road crash.
27. The all-American Rider of Arab Stallions. Alvia Beach and the naturists. Jon the ex-marine's 30,000 miles of wandering. Christie the horse rider.
28. Santa Barbara. Think Tank Country. President Reagan's ranch. Nuclear think tanks.
29. LA. Alice's Restaurant. Madonna's wedding. Mailbu Beach. Spanish colonisation heritage. Sunset Strip. The Museum of Modern Rock Art.
30. Down Mexico Way. Laguna Beach. Population growth. The native Americans.
31. The Music Machine. MTV. The quarter Cherokee. Intimations of the true message of the land.
32. Everyone's Gone Surfing. Black's Beach and the surfing beaches. La Jolla Cove, Silver Strand, Pacific Beach, La Lahina Beach House. AIDS. New York Stock Exchange.
33. North to San Francisco. Illegal immigrants. South America. Smog in LA. Japanese imports. US investment policy.

Link to Kozmik Press books and order information.




Footprint - Travel Guides - Find great up to date travel information with guides to dozens of the world’s most popular destinations.~,,,,~Apartments and self catering accommodation guide to EdinbuOnline travel guide for Barcelona from Footprint Books
The number of pioneers who have passed through here since July 3 1997