Here Lies America

Here Lies America is a fast-paced, hilarious travel narrative in which JasonCochran visits the major American tourism attractions that exist because somethingreally horrible happened there. He romps through disaster zones, battlefields,terrorist attack sites—as long as it has a parking lot and a gift shop, he put it onthe itinerary, no gravestone unturned. Along the way, he takes a look at themotivations of the people who installed the monuments, and when he pauses to seekthe meaning behind the early demise of one of his own ancestors, he uncovers atragic race-based murder plot that had been buried for a century. This is anAmerican journey that could only be undertaken in our turbulent times, celebratingthe absurd while surveying the country''s teetering patriotic mythology from ahealthy position on the margins. Jason chases newspaper clippings in dusty archivesto inscriptions on rusty plaques to get to the truth, and in doing so, creates amoving miniature portrait of what it really means to be an American: what''s "fact,"what''s "history," and what really matters.