The Out-of-Print American Dream

Eighty years ago, James Truslow Adam’s Epic of America was released. As its title implies, the book was a grand but concise story of the nation, from the time of Native Americans (who Adams routinely refers to as “savages”) to the industrial transformations of the late 19th century. Epic of America has long been out of print and today remains an obscure work in American history. I recently went searching for it in a number of libraries where it was either housed in an off-site storage warehouse, misplaced, or listed as lost. At Strand, the huge used bookstore on Broadway, the 20-something clerk looked earnestly at his computer screen and told me, “We haven’t had that book in years, and doesn’t look like we will be getting any time soon.”