American Fever: 250 Years of the Passions, Crazes, and Obsessions That Gripped a Nation, One Year at Time (1776-2026)

Forget what mattered most. This is the story of what GRIPPED us. Most histories of the United States tell you about the wars, the laws, and the treaties. American Fever asks a different question of every single year from 1776 to 2026: what was everyone actually talking about, and why couldn't they stop? Year by year, Noah K. Harrington takes the nation's temperature and charts a fever of the American mind. The toppling of a king's statue. A craze for a plastic hula hoop. A trapped child the whole country prayed for. A murdered showgirl, a moon landing, a dress that broke the internet. Each year gets one deliberately chosen passion, told as a scene you can stand inside, with a runner-up sensation tucked into an ALSO THAT YEAR box. Inside this book: - 251 self-contained year-entries, one for every year from 1776 to 2026- The five great anniversary "pivots" where the country stopped to look at itself: 1776, 1826, 1876, 1976, and 2026- An honest confession on page one: these are our choices, and yours would differ, and that is the point- The fears, wonders, griefs, and giddy crazes that recur, decade after decade, under new costumes Open it to the year you were born, or your parents' wedding, or the year you can't forget, and argue with it. Sharp, vivid, and built for the 250th birthday of the United States, American Fever is the gift book for anyone who loves the messy, passionate, unbreakable story of a country that has never once cooled all the way down.