Rating: 
Summary: Splendid attention to detail and filled with good people
Review: As a high school student forced to read many books in school, this was the first book I have read cover to cover and have enjoyed thourally. It captures the authors true feeling at specific situations that actually allows the reader to visualize what Peter is seeing. It brings to light the backroads and modest good-hearted people of America. A very good read!!
Rating:
Summary: An America We Should All Know
Review: Instead of succumbing to his feelings of loathe and disgust with America Peter Jenkins leaves his comfortable surburban haven to embark on a journey across America. Along with his dog Cooper, Peter
begins walking. His goal, a simple one, to walk across America to discover perhaps his homeland isn't as awful as it appears to be. From Peter's first step onto his pathway to the Pacific he is confronted
with the true America. The simple honest people and places that receive no attention in the media's spotlight but have a nobleness no millionaire sports player or celebrity can ever have. These people bare their heart and souls to Peter because it is all they have. From the reclusive mountain man Homer to Peter's future wife Barbara he is exposed to an America we should all know.
Rating: 
Summary: this journey goes one better....
Review: unlike william least-heat moon's "blue highways, " peter jenkins didn't see the country by truck; he walked acrossed america with only a backpack, his dog, and a few dollars..he wanted to see if the country was still worth believing in...and it was...he met a mountain man and learned the importance of living off the land...he lived with a black family and discovered the power of love and the sense of community that shatter prejudices...he went to alabama, met the governor, who told him to discover the south and then judge it for himself, and finally, he met a woman and fell in love... the writing is nothing special...but he just wanted to tell you what happened...i was not suprised at the treatment he recieved from southerners,; southern whites have always viewed northern whites as snooty intellectuals with no common sense; northerners see southerners as ignorant, lazy, uneducated, and racist...i thought it was funny how jenkins condemned southerners whites for wanting to "rub black people off the face of the earth," when northern people can be just as racist;only difference is southerners are just open with their hatred. It took alot of guts for him to take the journey..to be harrassed for being a free spirit...it was good to see that while he lived an alternative lifestyle, he didn't resorting to forcing it on anyone. i'm an agnostic, but his finding god was refreshing and uplifting... and how fitting that he met the love of his life in new orleans ! i grew up 80 miles west of new orleans in baton rouge,louisiana and visited it alot when i was in high school and college...new orleans has an european old-world charm that anyone can fall in love with... and i fell in love with this book...
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Journey
Review: I found this book long forgotten on a shelf in an extra bedroom during the holidays. Having read Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" several months ago, I thought a good travelogue would be an interesting read. Other reviewers have provided an ample summary of the storyline, but I simply saw this as being a personal travel journal written by a typical recent college grad of his adventures (I wouldn't call him a hippie - weren't we all pseudo hippies at that day and age). The book seemed to be very genuine accounts of his thoughts and exploits - an interesting glimpse for the rest of us - not only of his travels within these geographic regions, but of America and people in general in that day and age. There is certainly no comparison in the writing sophistication of Bryson's excellent book and this first Peter Jennings endeavor, however for light reading (sometimes a little corny and naive), but enough going on to keep you interested and reading, I recommend it. I found it very uplifting and reconfirming as to what America's really like beyond the turbulent newspaper headlines.
Rating: 
Summary: Hey teenager: read some beatniks or something.
Review: So, a young, all American boy says: "I want to feel the marrow of this great country" or something equally absurd and decides to walk it's width. I read this when I was 19 and travelling around the US solo, you know, looking for some good travel narrative. Basically, this book confirmed my fears about how boring America really is: you walk around, meet some guys with beards. Oh, what a suprise- America has black people. And then you find Jesus and seduce a nun (well, the seduction wasn't actually stated, but I give it an extra star on the off chance it was implied). Oh yeah, this guy really likes his dog and thinks it has feelings and a soul and what-have-you. I'm sorry, but I simply can not trust a person who thinks so highly of a dog. That is not to say I don't like dogs. That is to say that I don't like this book--it's trite, full of pop psych style inspiration, and double crosses you with a litany of born again Jesus magic.
Rating:
Summary: 290 pages of inspiration
Review: Peter Jenkins' "A Walk Across America" at first glance is just another book in the Travel Essay section of a bookstore. The words are plain, the prose at times feels unnatural (like Jenkins opened his high-school creative writing book and added all of the suggestions at once). But for as immemorable as the writing in this book is, the story is unnaturally sincere and humane. Jenkins' story of being disillusioned at twenty, searching for the real world, and deciding to walk across America to find it is at once an instant American classic. The highs, the lows, the incredible amount of passion he puts into the book gives the reader the sense that he is sitting at Jenkins' feet listening to him tell the story. His accounts of the people he meets, the lessons he learns and the hardships he overcomes can be enjoyed by people from all walks of life, young and old. A must-read.
Rating:
Summary: An American classic
Review: Everyone should have this book on their shelf. After all these years it is still in print, so that should tell you something! Peter was a hippie disillusioned by America. He decided to set out on a literal walk across America with nothing but his backpack and malamute dog to keep him company. There are, of course, ups and downs to his journey - times of loneliness, sickness, danger, and peril. But he met many wonderful people. Some would surprise you - like a recluse mountain man who turned out to be friendlier than he thought, and a poor black family in the rural south who were very generous and welcomed him into their humble home. He even lived on a cult-like, alternative, free-love "farm" for while. Peter, at the end of his walk, had a spiritual awakening and his faith in America was re-newed. It is an inspiring story. But does not end here. The next book chronicles his walk west with his new wife!
Rating:
Summary: "A journey of self-discovery, a special book"
Review: This is a classic that came out in 1979, and has deservedly stayed in print. It is ostensibly a backpacking journey across the country begun by a young, somewhat disenchanted man, but it is also very much a journey of self-discovery. A good portion of the memoir takes place in Alabama-in fact, it ends in Mobile-such as a stay in Mountain Brook as well as an eventful Alabama football game in Birmingham. The author's meeting with Governor George Wallace has to be read to be believed. It's a special book.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I ever read
Review: This book is my all time favorite. It is true adventure with a new happening one every page. A must read !!!
Rating:
Summary: The best book ever...almost!
Review: I am not a person who likes to read much and certainly not the same book repeatedly. But I have read A Walk Across America at least 5 times which is why I'm buying a new one in hardback. I read Peter's story to my students and we use it for geography lessons, graphing lessons and for all around enjoyment. One year I was unable to finish the book before the end of the school year and a student begged his parents to track down a copy of it so he could finish it on his own.
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