A More Goodly Country: A Personal History of America
John Sanford
Introduction by Jack Mearns
2023

"It was, and it is, an unrelenting and accusatory book. No one who values his country can find its charges easy to bear—and yet I value my country, too, and the book was written only to make it better."
— John Sanford, in his preface to the 1982 Black Sparrow reissue of A More Goodly Country

"This is, quite simply, a noble and beautiful book, savage in its interpretation of our heritage, absolute in its integrity, and almost miraculous in its language."
— The Tennessean (Nashville, TN), May 5, 1975

"It is a work for all time, a work of love, of wry humor, of devastating criticism. . . . It is a work of poetry, a work of greatness, and while it is almost blatantly subjective it is never subservient to any ideology."
— Corvallis Gazette-Times (Corvallis, OR), December 27, 1975

". . . an oozing, raucous treat of a book . . . a sprawling chorus on this country, sparing none of the harsh voices, leaving none of our pimples unpicked."
— Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1975

"One day it will be a classic."
— York Daily Record (York, PA), December 27, 1975