The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Sarah Vowell

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2002
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9780743233361
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Social Sciences

From This American Life contributor and self-described “history nerd” Sarah Vowell comes a collection of humorous and personal essays investigating American history, pop culture, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell travels through the American past and in doing so ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot?

Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration.

The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• What He Said There
• The First Thanksgiving
• Ike Was a Handsome Man
• God Will Give You Blood to Drink in a Souvenir Shot Glass
• The New German Cinema
• Democracy and Things Like That
• Pop-A-Shot
• California as an Island
• Dear Dead Congressman
• The Nerd Voice
• Rosa Parks, C’est Moi
• Tom Cruise Makes Me Nervous
• Underground Lunchroom
• Wonder Twins
• Cowboys v. Mounties
• The Partly Cloudy Patriot
• State of the Union
• Tom Landry, Existentialist, Dead at 75
• The Strenuous Life
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author