National Geographic // The United States of America

Travel through time and across the country with this state-by-state tour of the United States over the past 100 years. Following on from the critically acclaimed National Geographic: Around the World in 125 Years, the volume brings together more than 700 captivating images from the magazine’s illustrious archives to chart a century of change and growth from Alabama to Wyoming.

State by state, these remarkable images bring a vivid account of a vast, evolving, and diverse country, from breathtaking landscapes to advancing industry, evocative rural life to burgeoning towns and cities. We travel from the ski slopes of Colorado to the jazz bars of New Orleans, from the luxurious Hollywood Hills to a barbershop in Kentucky, and from Manhattan’s Chinatown to a river baptism in Mississippi. Along the way, the tour takes in the gamut of photographic evolution, shifting from early black-and-white and autochrome images of the 1920s and 1930s into midcentury Kodachrome, then the harder-edged reportage of the 1970s and 1980s, and finally the digital images of the 1990s through to the present.

With an introductory essay by photography editor David Walker, as well as prefaces to each state section and fascinating storytelling captions, this book celebrates not only the world’s greatest photography magazine but also the people, history, and beauty of the United States in all its kaleidoscopic glory.

The authors
Jeff Z. Klein worked at The New York Times for 19 years as an editor and reporter. Prior to that, he was an editor at The Village Voice, and has authored several books about sports as well as writing for TASCHEN’s popular 36 Hours series. He currently divides his time between New York City and Buffalo, where he produces a series on regional history for Buffalo’s NPR station.

During three decades as an editor, writer, and photographer, Joe Yogerst has lived and worked on four continents including Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. His writing has appeared in National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, The Los Angeles Times, and The International Herald Tribune, among others. He has authored numerous travel guides for National Geographic and has been the recipient of four Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers.

David Walker was born in South Dakota, and raised in New Jersey and Maine. He is the executive editor of the photography industry bible Photo District News, and a past winner of the McAllister Editorial Fellowship at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. A graduate of Cornell University, he has written articles about photography and other subjects for a variety of international publications.

The editor
Reuel Golden is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photography editor at TASCHEN. His TASCHEN titles include: Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, both London and New York Portrait of a City books, Andy Warhol. Polaroids, The Rolling Stones, Her Majesty, Football in the 1970s, the National Geographic editions, and The David Bailey SUMO.