John Van Dyke is a storyteller and author of his new book BOOM! now available from BARNES & NOBLE, independent booksellers, and Amazon. He has traveled across the country, filming and recording conversations with over 130 people in 34 states, and is the founder of An American Mosaic, a project that explores and showcases the diversity, culture, and history of the American people and places.
“So much has shifted and changed during this time, yet we are still trying to figure out who we are. I didn’t get all the answers, I did come away with understanding. I now know something about us. It is why I hope you will read my book, it is the understanding part that is important.”
Before embarking on his journey, John Van Dyke was a successful designer, architect, and branding expert, who led an internationally recognized design office based in Seattle for 21 years. He also designed a stunning house in Mexico, featured in Architectural Record Magazine in 2016.
As a storyteller I am taking you along with me in my new book. Discovering people and places as I traveled around the country meeting people, having random conversations. History books will talk about us — and this time— long after we are gone. It will be a complicated history of technology, generations, finance, power, politics, media, and humanity.
John Van Dyke
Boom!—A book
—About us.
It’s a big country for an old man.
Ideas, thoughts, have come out of my conversations as I start connecting the dots on so many things. Our past has made today possible. Yet many tend to forget what America was built on. America is about ideas, values, beliefs, family, communities, and stories. It was founded as a community of diverse peoples who shared a dream of a better place and life. Immigrants, many of whom didn’t speak English helped build out America. They settled in the communities around resources and industry. Hard work was rewarded and families grew. Young kids who saw opportunities, and a better life, were educated. The American Dream was spreading. Anything was possible. Along the way we invented, and created, and prospered.
Meet Doug, Todd, Kristen, Art, Keith, Victoria, Levi, Cindy, Rex, Maurice, Terese, Scotty, Jon, Laura, Bailey, Joey, David and more.
When I was first thinking about how to start this project, what to ask people, what is important, the American Dream kept coming up. I guess I was thinking that maybe people thought it no longer existed or was broken. Certainly a lot of media and rhetoric was portraying that. Yet I found it living in the heart of immigrants and Storm Lake, the newspaper editor, a Mexican restaurant, and Levi the young Amish man. And I was just beginning.
“Like many Americans, I am dismayed by the political schism in this country that has torn apart friendships and even families while it worsens every day. Van Dyke's project to travel the country and talk to ordinary people from all walks of life was an inspiration and the things he learned can show us all the power of listening--really listening--to others. While we may not agree with fellow Americans, we should make an effort to understand why they feel the way they do.” — Reader Review
Buy book at BARNES & NOBLE , your independent bookseller, and Amazon