A story of a childhood defined by loneliness, the absence of a father and the grim experience of a Quaker boarding school. But with gun-wielding school masters and sub-standard living conditions, Quaker boarding school wasn't much better.
American talent and ingenuity and renewal, the very genius that led to Obama's rise, is celebrated too little in the outside world. The time has come - with the Bush presidency over - for a new appreciation of what makes America tick. Have a Nice Day does not shy away from the crazy preachers, the guns, and the continuing racial divisions. But it puts the rough edges of American life in context - geographical and intellectual. This is exactly the right time, Justin Webb claims, for the world to take a look at why Americans think as they do, and why they might just be right -