Letters to America

Letters to America was written to energize Americans at a time of economic stress and self-doubt. By reading of the sacrifices the previous American generations – that often endured everyday hardships beyond the comprehension of those of us with running water – challenges confronting individual modern Americans pale in comparison.
Starvation and hardship was a given for the early settlers, and yet somehow they persevered and through the fruits of their labors and the tenacity of subsequent immigrants and their descendants, the United States of America grew and flourished. Do we have the work ethic and perseverance today of our forefathers? Do modern Americans even know what true suffering is? Tom Blair believes that Americans can come together to solve this country’s problems, but they will need to be able to sacrifice and work like those who have come before us.
A blending of Forrest Gump, Roots and a Profiles in Courage populated by characters from the country’s past. Letters to America is a compilation of twelve letters, each a chapter told in first person, by fictional Americans about their everyday lives. The voices are entirely distinct—men, women, and children; white, black, Native American, Jewish—spanning four centuries, from early American settlers in Jamestown in the 1620s to modern day corporate lunches in mid-town Manhattan. Yet the stories are loosely linked by subtle resonances; and the letters have a cumulative effect that is both humbling and deeply affecting, filled with hope for a future that can be as inspirational as our past.

"The compassionate voice allows us to experience how life was lived not by the people who made history, but by those who lived it. This book is a diary of America." —Jay Leno

“Tom Blair has taken great care to chronicle the stories of twelve individuals who, deemed ordinary by history, were extraordinary personifications of American bravery and industriousness. His book is a reminder of America’s historical legacy as well as its future potential.” —Dr. Henry Kissinger

“The book is at once an imaginative, sobering, and instructive message to contemporary Americans, the inheritors of all the work, invention, values, and personal and financial interests of those who cleared the way for today’s generations.” —Tom Brokaw, from his foreword to Letters to America