The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen - Hardcover

O'Keefe, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 158648270X ISBN 13: 9781586482701

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2005

Synopsis

Send an e-card for The Average American ! Click here.

John Q Public. Plain Jane. The Average Joe. We think we know the type, but have we ever actually met the person? To be the perfectly average American is harder than it might seem: You must live within three miles of a McDonald's, and two miles of a public park; you must be better off financially than your parents, but earn no more than 75,000 a year; you must believe in God and the literal truth of the Bible, yet hold some views that traditional churches have deemed sacrilegious.

Equipped with his trusty Mr. Q, a notebook that he has compiled with over 1,000 facts about the Average American, Kevin O'Keefe has completed a tour of America in search of the sublimely ordinary, the man or woman who represents most definitively all that is average in our country.

In his travels from New York to Nevada, Pennsylvania to Hawaii, Kansas to Connecticut and beyond, O'Keefe talks business and pleasure with the proprietors of Average Joe and Jane Athletics, visits the polls on election day with the first candidate for the Average American party, bypasses both Peoria and Normal, Illinois (for, as he explains, they are not that normal), watches the magician Myklar the Ordinary wow the kids at a church in rural Maryland, and delivers a fascinating, often surprising, look into the history and culture of the common man and woman. At the end of the road he discovers that the Average American is, up close, rather extraordinary.

About this title

About the Author:

Kevin O'Keefe has held several high-profile management posts in the professional sports industry and has served as a media and marketing consultant for over a dozen Fortune 500 companies. Also a magazine reporter, he now runs his own marketing consulting firm. He lives in New York.

Review:

"I think that everyone is going to run out and get this book... remembering that average is good." -- Martha Stewart, "Martha"

"It is a terrific book. You've got to pick it up and read it." -- Steve Doocy, "FOX & Friends"

"The author's quest to find the 'most statistically average' American turns out to be a lively, fact-filled trip." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 13, 2005

"The journey toward run-of-the-mill has never been so remarkable." -- Newsweek

"[O'Keefe's] project is intriguing, combining...the elements of a detective story and the trivia interest of Ripley's Believe It or Not." -- The New York Times, November 18, 2005

I think that everyone is going to run out and get this book... remembering that average is good. -- Martha Stewart, Martha, October 24, 2005

It is a terrific book. You've got to pick it up and read it... It's a great story. -- Steve Doocy, FOX & Friends, November 16, 2005

It is an enlightening book about who we really turn out to be. -- Colin McEnroe, WTIC Radio, November 9, 2005

The author's quest to find the most statistically average American turns out to be a lively, fact-filled trip. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 13, 2005

Who, exactly, is the average American? The results are surprising. -- Sacramento Bee, November 3, 2005

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 158648270X
• ISBN 13: 9781586482701
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272