America’s Idea of a Good Time combines photographs by Kate Schermerhorn with an essay by Simon Winchester, published by Dewi Lewis in 2001. The publisher describes it as a compelling and hilarious exploration of the search for fun, and quotes Simon Winchester as the best selling author of The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Across its black-and-white photographs, the book gathers communal rituals through which Americans pursue pleasure: paintball, bungee jumping and pretended bungee jumping, bingo, bowling, fishing, hitting golf balls through clown heads and miniature churches, even stacking Oreo Cookies.

Schermerhorn treats these activities without condescension. In the publisher’s words, her pictures have wit and charm, and sometimes their irony can be frightening; they take us on a journey through the rich gamut of America’s idea of a good time. Mary Ellen Mark is quoted to that effect, while Nick Hall of Independent Magazine calls the book a quirky, funny, affectionate take on Americans at play. Nick Waplington notes that Schermerhorn works within the tradition of great American photography to show the surreal underbelly of the USA, and Doubletake describes the work as marked by lightheartedness, irony and affection.

The book is 96 pages and includes 104 black-and-white photographs, measuring 230mm x 205mm. In her own statement, Schermerhorn writes that Americans do a lot of things in the name of fun, and suggests that life is not about expanding our minds or learning life’s lessons but about bumper stickers. That remark gives a sense of the book’s tone: an affectionate but sharp look at leisure as a national pursuit. For readers interested in how American photographers of this period handled recreation and collective identity, it remains a considered example.