Made in U.S.A.: The Secret Histories of the Things That Made America
Grove Press
February 2, 1992
Hardcover (also paperback)

From Publishers Weekly: this lively account explains how popular technology helped mold American society–and vice versa. Impressively erudite Esquire columnist Patton (Open Road) has researched his subject exhaustively; the reader will learn as much about the rise and development of the paper bag and the eggbeater (typically American, by the way) as about xerography and the computer explosion. It is difficult to think of material objects not discussed here, as the author moves from Jefferson’s writing box of 1775 through the mason jar, the sewing machine, the Ames shovel, the Colt revolver and the truss bridge to the Polaroid camera, the Gillette razor blade and the telephone.

Excerpts from reviewers:
• “With a digger’s curiosity and a poet’s pen he has done for the lowest artifacts of life–from easy chairs to the computer mouse–what Hemingway did for the sentence, what Picasso did for the color blue, what John Waters did for polyester.”– The Baltimore Sun
• “The Margaret Mead of ordinary things,”– New York magazine
• “Patton is a Mr. Peabody of relevant information about distinctly American things.” — Esquire
• “Informative and entertaining,” — Witold Rybcyznski