Review
Alex George's A Good American
has received wonderful reviews from BookBrowse readers; 20 out of 23 people rate if 4 or 5 stars! Here's what they have to say:
A Good American is one of the best generational stories I have ever read. The author - Alex George - is an immigrant, who has obviously fallen in love with America. His understanding of the challenges and opportunities experienced by our ancestors upon entry into the United States is evident. This novel presents the reader with a wide range of emotional highs and lows, joys and tragedies, and examples of good behavior and dastardly acts (Steve B). George's novel grabbed and held my attention from the very beginning. I felt that the characters were well drawn, the family story lines were consistent and well developed, and everything was entirely believable (Mary D).
A Good American was...
Beyond the Book
It might surprise you to learn that in the latest census, 51 million Americans self-identified as having German ancestry (estimates suggest that about 1/3 of these are of German ancestry alone, the rest are of partial German ancestry). That's a whopping 17% of the population, more than any other heritage group - over 13 million more than claim Irish heritage and almost double those who claim English heritage.
Because Germany as a country did not exist until 1871, many of the ancestors of today's German Americans would not have emigrated from Germany itself but from other parts of Europe that were dominated by German speakers during the height of the Holy Roman Empire (which had its center in the Kingdom of Germany, just one of the many kingdoms that were unified to form...
