A memoir based on the premise that large numbers of new Americans and a generation of idealistic Americans are ready after a period of soul searching for a positive reading of America's past and of the promise of America. Large numbers of new Americans with a second-language or second-culture background emerge being mainstreamed after surviving the obstacle course of a testing culture that has little to say to them about the meaning of America past or future. Millions of techies (median salary here in Silicon Valley $115,00) are expected to participate in the world of public discourse without much guidance that is up-to-date or not discredited. Guth's American odyssey starts in the basement of an Italian mountain farm where he is one of the walking wounded of a German unit dispersed in a losing war waiting to surrender to the Americans who are already in the courtyard above. The book leads on to a career as a student, teacher, and teacher of teachers in the United States, working with teachers and students in venues ranging from the great prestige universities to the classrooms close to the Mexican border where you never see the pundits who send missives about "failing schools" from the Hoover Institute or the Heritage Foundation.