As anyone who has ever seen an exhibit of flea-market art knows, John Wayne, like Elvis, is still with us 20 years after his death. In his new book, historian Garry Wills sets out to uncover why and how this is the case. What is it about the westerns of a horse-hating man and the war films of a draft-dodger that have made Wayne a mythic figure and a central icon of 20th-century America? Not exactly a biography—though it contains many interesting biographical elements—John Wayne's America is the work of a historian interested in examining the points at which film, history and myth intersect. Wills focuses primarily on Wayne's westerns, particularly his work with director John Ford: He casts their Cold War westerns into a particularly compelling light, showing that the Manifest Destiny sentiments of the cavalry films have much in common with the beliefs of post-war America. Wayne's twilight years as a walking symbol of an earlier time—as illustrated in the painful depiction of the witless production of The Green Berets—are also memorably recounted. It's with these sections that Wills, as a historian and an observer of film, is at his best, but his decision to leave biography to others occasionally hampers the work; he often seems to have examined the elements surrounding Wayne thoroughly, while leaving the central figure untouched. Consequently, John Wayne's America falls short of being the milestone book it could have been. Nevertheless, readers will learn much about history and the way a powerful, popular figure can both influence and be influenced by its currents. That's an important lesson in itself.