"These United States is, above all, a magnificent—and I don't use that word loosely—portfolio of canvas-worthy colored photographs, with a prose that is, ultimately as pictorial as the pictures. One might say that the photographs are essentially romantic, and this is true. But America is a romantic dream and realization. Simply, this is a beautiful epitomization of a nation. I know of no better one. After diving pleasurably and deeply into its pages, one surfaces remembering—we sometimes forget—that the United States probably bears man's best hope for a viable future. This is a book for every library in those states."

(Los Angeles Herald Examiner)


This book is a love song to America. For several decades Fred J. Maroon and Hugh Sidey have watched our country grow and change, have fought for her, laughed and agonized over her. Now these wise and sensitive observers celebrate her.

Why celebrate in the midst of ugliness, chaos and despair? Because, as Hugh Sidey says, "More is still right than wrong, more is still pleasing than offensive." The author's feelings, as in most love songs, embrace the country's beauty – her sweep, height, diversity. All 50 states and the District of Columbia are represented here in Sidey's inspiring text and in 182 pages of Maroon's magnificent color photographs. Down mighty rivers, around busy harbors, along shaded streets, past clangorous factories and thrusting skyscrapers, above jagged mountains and into sylvan retreats of unspoiled wilderness, this book evokes an appreciation for America's vitality, its natural and historic heritage, as well as sorrow for any misunderstandings that have destroyed, or have separated man from nature and man from man.

Above all, These United States reaffirms a faith in our country's future, in our ability to reclaim our roots and preserve them. It is this faith that gives the book its lyrical intensity, that touches hearts and invites all to join in the authors' abiding love for this land.