Pop Culture versus Real America

Our opening scene takes place in Rome, early morning, late summer, in the breakfast room of a moderately priced albergo (hotel), catering to the tourist trade, a stone’s throw from the Pantheon. The waiters, Filipino natives, hover in their white waistcoats as the hotel guests, families from the United Kingdom, France, Greece, and Spain mostly, graze over the croissants and sweets and pitchers of juice, maintaining a polite indifference to one another in their respective zones of privacy. Everything is a hum of efficiency and competence, executed in the hushed tones appropriate to the hour.

This book contrasts pop culture images from movies and TV with profiles of real Americans from every walk of life.