What is America? Through History Philosophy and the Gun

Serendipity has brought two recent cultural engagements of mine together with a mind opening crank. I have recently been reading Ronald Wright’s What Is America (actually i should say I’ve been listening to it as an audio book on my phone which has become my new great pleasure).

In the most exquisite prose Wright sets out a landscape of historic precedent to map a profile of what America is through the New World’s history from Spanish Conquistadors to the Bush Administration.  It is the ultimate example of the value of history that goes way beyond the old adage of repeating the mistakes of the past, to offer up a much more specific, detailed, nuanced and challenging profile of America - a nation-character who’s true nature its own inhabitants struggle to recognise. 

And then I come to the latest episode of Extra Credits which, through the prism of the computer gaming industry delivers a delightfully concise and eye-opening perspective on what America makes first-person shooter games and japan, as the other great game culture, does not. Avoiding simplistic notions of “Americans Like Guns”, Extra Credits goes much deeper to offer up a perspective rooted in philosophy, ideology and history… much like Ronald Wright’s book. The two, serendipitously, go very well together.

Ronald Wright discusses his book - What is America?