'The Men Who United the States:' United we differ  History,
geography, ingenuity have made ‘E pluribus unum’ a reality
Share with others:  Print Email Read Later  What about us makes
us the U.S.?  This is a question that has been pondered since de
Crevecoeur (whose meditations on the subject were written in
1782) and de Tocqueville (who chimed in a half century later).
Now Simon Winchester, who like Crevecoeur was born abroad but
became American, has raised his hand with theories of his own.
In "The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers,
Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One
Nation, Indivisible,'' the author of "The Professor and the
Madman" offers what he calls "a parsing of the rich complexities
that lie behind the country's so-simple-sounding motto: E
pluribus unum.''  The result is a brisk and bracing race through
American history, geography, geology -- and ingenuity, with a
dash of psychology and sociology thrown in. The task is like the
national motto, simple sounding bu