The premise of this book has great promise. In a nutshell, author Jack Hitt thinks amateurism is the unique quality of American thinkers, tinkerers, inventors, scholars and business owners that forms the American spirit. Thus the title of his book, Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character.

I happen to think Hitt is onto something here. Unlike most countries, America encourages the risk taker who has no experience. We are not enamored with experts, whether academic, scientific, political or economic. The upside is a perpetual change engine operating within our culture, constantly reinventing ourselves through trial and error. Of course there is a downside too: America gives air time to the amateurs who claim a rock formation was built by aliens.

But that’s the point — experts get their air time, but amateurs do as well. Sometimes we get misled and believe silly things. Other times we find the amateurs figure things out faster than the experts. Or at least the amateurs act as a check against experts with an overinflated sense of worth. It’s a bit like academic peer review systems, but done by waves of amateurs checking and testing each expert claim. And sometimes, perhaps more often than we realize, those amateurs are right.

So the premise is interesting, even fun. Sadly, the book does not do a great job of flushing out the evidence to support the idea. Most of the stories and examples are anecdotal, not definitive. I suppose that’s the nature of a bunch of amateurs though, right?

All in all, an interesting premise written by a clever author with a sense of humor. Like a good amateur, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Which is a good thing. Because you never know when those rock formations might transform into a spacecraft.