LoC’s “Books That Shaped America”

It’s summer, it’s a Friday, why not get way over-invested in arguing over a list?

The Library of Congress, the world’s largest repository of knowledge and information, began a multiyear “Celebration of the Book” with an exhibition on “Books That Shaped America.” The initial books in the exhibition are displayed below.

“This list is a starting point,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “It is not a register of the ‘best’ American books – although many of them fit that description. Rather, the list is intended to spark a national conversation on books written by Americans that have influenced our lives, whether they appear on this initial list or not.”

My initial reactions:

Why only one book after 1987?
Where is Dr. Atkins’s diet book? Think of the influence that one diet book, originally published in the 1970s, had and still has about how America eats.