One Summer: America, 1927
Ratings24
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings24
Average rating4.2
In summer 1927, America had a booming stock market, a president who worked just four hours a day (and slept much of the rest), a devastating flood of the Mississippi, a sensational murder trial, and an unknown aviator named Charles Lindbergh who became the most famous man on earth. It was the summer that saw the birth of talking pictures, the invention of television, the peak of Al Capone’s reign of terror, the horrifying bombing of a school in Michigan, the thrillingly improbable return to greatness of over-the-hill baseball player Babe Ruth, and an almost impossible amount more. In this hugely entertaining book, Bill Bryson spins a tale of brawling adventure, reckless optimism and delirious energy. With the trademark brio, wit and authority that make him Britain’s favourite writer of narrative non-fiction, he brings to life a forgotten summer when America came of age, took centre stage, and changed the world.
Reviews with the most likes.
I could read Bryson on anything and enjoy it. This one felt a bit disorganized at times, but it was still quite good.
Started this originally 10/15/13 but only read 58 pages. Restarted 6/5/14 and read it quick. I wound up enjoying it, especially for mostly being about topics I don't really care about (aviation, baseball, etc.). It did jump around a lot but I didn't mind that as much as I expected. Very interesting book.
Bill Bryson cannot write a bad book. Here he chronicles one summer in 1927 in America, with a cast of dozens: Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Herbert Hoover, Prohibition, Mississippi Floods, Lou Gehrig, Calvin Coolidge, Al Capone and many more. An excellent way to learn history.
An entertaining and often enlightening read into America's modern history. Bryson covers a lot of ground pre-1927 and some past it to narrate a wonderful tale about events coming together in an eventful summer of 1927. From the race across the Atlantic via air that made Lindbergh a hero to his subsequent fall from grace, to Babe Ruth's record-breaking home run hits, to the various trials often tainted with overt racism and anti-semiticism, to the devastating floods of 1927 that got virtually no media coverage, and to the eccentric American presidents of that time.
No matter how much you know about American history, you'll definitely learn something new from this 528-page tome that's well worth your time. Don't skip the epilogue. It's like a series finale that ties up all the loose ends of all the characters you've read about.
