The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon

By Bill McKibben,

Book cover of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened

Book description

One of the New Yorker's Best Books of 2022

Bill McKibben―award-winning author, activist, educator―is fiercely curious.

“I’m curious about what went so suddenly sour with American patriotism, American faith, and American prosperity.”

Like so many of us, McKibben grew up believing―knowing―that the United States was the greatest country on earth.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I am a few years older than the author and grew up in the suburbs of Boston, three towns away from his childhood home. The childhood he describes completely mirrors my own.

Like McKibben, I have witnessed the same disturbing changes happening in our country over the past 50 years. I, too, have shaken my head in disbelief at the transformations and asked, “How can this be happening?”

McKibben’s fierce curiosity and detailed research explain this change by examining how the definition of patriotism has taken on a different meaning, how the role of religion has waned significantly, especially in…

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