
And he wonders if any of that trinity of his youth- The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon-could, or should, be reclaimed in the fight for a fairer future. In this revelatory cri de coeur, McKibben digs deep into our history (and his own well-meaning but not all-seeing past) and into the latest scholarship on race and inequality in America, on the rise of the religious right, and on our environmental crisis to explain how we got to this point. And with the remarkable rise of suburbia, he assumed that all Americans would share in the wealth.īut fifty years later, he finds himself in an increasingly doubtful nation strained by bleak racial and economic inequality, on a planet whose future is in peril.Īnd he is curious: What the hell happened? Joe Bernt will lead the discussion on Wednesday. As a teenager, he cheerfully led American Revolution tours in Lexington, Massachusetts. Cannon Beach Reads May book club pick is, The Flag, The Cross, and The Station Wagon, by Bill McKibben. Like so many of us, McKibben grew up believing-knowing-that the United States was the greatest country on earth. “I’m curious about what went so suddenly sour with American patriotism, American faith, and American prosperity.” One of the New Yorker's Best Books of 2022 So Farīill McKibben-award-winning author, activist, educator-is fiercely curious.
