The summer of 1927 began with one of the signature events of the twentieth century: on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop, and when he landed in Le Bourget airfield near Paris, he ignited an explosion of worldwide rapture and instantly became the most famous person on the planet. Meanwhile, the titanically talented Babe Ruth was beginning his assault on the home run record, which would culminate on September 30 with his sixtieth blast, one of the most resonant and durable records in sports history. In between those dates a Queens housewife named Ruth Snyder and her corset-salesman lover garroted her husband, leading to a murder trial that became a huge tabloid sensation. Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly sat atop a flagpole in Newark, New Jersey, for twelve days—a new record. The American South was clobbered by unprecedented rain and by flooding …
The summer of 1927 began with one of the signature events of the twentieth century: on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop, and when he landed in Le Bourget airfield near Paris, he ignited an explosion of worldwide rapture and instantly became the most famous person on the planet. Meanwhile, the titanically talented Babe Ruth was beginning his assault on the home run record, which would culminate on September 30 with his sixtieth blast, one of the most resonant and durable records in sports history. In between those dates a Queens housewife named Ruth Snyder and her corset-salesman lover garroted her husband, leading to a murder trial that became a huge tabloid sensation. Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly sat atop a flagpole in Newark, New Jersey, for twelve days—a new record. The American South was clobbered by unprecedented rain and by flooding of the Mississippi basin, a great human disaster, the relief efforts for which were guided by the uncannily able and insufferably pompous Herbert Hoover. Calvin Coolidge interrupted an already leisurely presidency for an even more relaxing three-month vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The gangster Al Capone tightened his grip on the illegal booze business through a gaudy and murderous reign of terror and municipal corruption. The first true “talking picture,” Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, was filmed and forever changed the motion picture industry. The four most powerful central bankers on earth met in secret session on a Long Island estate and made a fateful decision that virtually guaranteed a future crash and depression.
All this and much, much more transpired in that epochal summer of 1927, and Bill Bryson captures its outsized personalities, exciting events, and occasional just plain weirdness with his trademark vividness, eye for telling detail, and delicious humor. In that year America stepped out onto the world stage as the main event, and One Summer transforms it all into narrative nonfiction of the highest order.
I pretty much loved this from start to finish. I am a slow reader, but found myself frequently picking this book up whenever I had a spare ten minutes.
He also uses a trick, that John Irving uses, which really hooks me. At the end of several chapters, he gives a spoiler about the current topic, but then the next chapter is on a different topic. The spoiler just teases you enough to want to keep reading now to get closer to when the teaser is fully expunged.
His voice and style is the same as with pretty much all Bill Bryson books, if you love Bill Bryson, there is no good reason not to read this one. That said, if you aren't a fan this will likely be a long slog. If you've never read any Bill Bryson, perhaps start with a shorter one as a taster.
Review of 'One Summer: America 1927' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book from a favorite author of mine, Bill Bryson, touches on all of interesting events that occurred during the summer of 1927 and how they shaped the way the United States is today, including baseball and human flight.
Promising starting point but what a slog. There’s this unfortunate tendency among modern editors to turn meek when writers get too famous, and it looks like Bryson has arrived in those ranks. This is a great book made mediocre by uncut verborrhea: winding digressions, long laundry-list enumerations of names and cities and baseball stats, and a confusing timeline. Largely enjoyable, because the source content is interesting, but overall tedious, and Bryson’s voice here is muffled — not his usual sparkle.
Review of 'One Summer: America 1927' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
One Summer takes a look at headlines from 1927, and Bryson fleshes out the stories with background information in order to explain the story. Lots of little vignettes on Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh, but the only common thread is the year.
If you love Bill Bryson's voice and style, it doesn't matter what he writes -- you'll love it. I am not one of those people, so while I enjoyed his story of hiking the Appalachian Trail, I have not loved his other books. Stopped reading this one halfway through, and I don't regret it.
Review of 'One Summer: America 1927' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Bryson suggests calling the times about which he writes (summer of 1927 but including its influences from earlier and it's later consequences) the "Age of Loathing," a term which seems equally applicable to the present. Indeed, the levels of hatred by those professing to be Christians is reminiscent of those professing "values" today. It was a time of corruption in high places, or moral posturing, of anti-immigrant sentiments, of racial and religious casual and not so casual discrimination with no attempt to pretend otherwise. And yet, this was the time of heroic aviators, inventors, and sports champions. This is when America was great.
Often when reading this book, I felt the human races was hopeless--not a pleasant thing to feel, but that's not why I denied the book a fifth star. I did that because I felt manipulated by the way the Sacco and Vanzetti story was told, frontloaded with …
Bryson suggests calling the times about which he writes (summer of 1927 but including its influences from earlier and it's later consequences) the "Age of Loathing," a term which seems equally applicable to the present. Indeed, the levels of hatred by those professing to be Christians is reminiscent of those professing "values" today. It was a time of corruption in high places, or moral posturing, of anti-immigrant sentiments, of racial and religious casual and not so casual discrimination with no attempt to pretend otherwise. And yet, this was the time of heroic aviators, inventors, and sports champions. This is when America was great.
Often when reading this book, I felt the human races was hopeless--not a pleasant thing to feel, but that's not why I denied the book a fifth star. I did that because I felt manipulated by the way the Sacco and Vanzetti story was told, frontloaded with evidence of their innocence only to end with evidence of the opposite. It makes for a more exciting read that way, I suppose.
Review of 'One Summer: America 1927' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
If Bill Bryson wrote history textbooks, my knowledge on the topic would likely be improved ten-fold. He’s such a great storyteller, he’s able to suss out the interesting details that make people, places and times come to life.
In One Summer, he specifically focuses on the events of 1927, though - in honesty - it seems like that’s kind of an excuse for him to write about whatever he found interesting in the first quarter of the century, since he often backtracks to provide back-story leading up to the events of 1927. Regardless, it’s a great ride. One of the reviews I read criticized the book for being disjointed because Bryson hops from topic to topic without a clear plan. That might bother some people, but I didn’t find it distracting.
This book touches on:
* Babe Ruth * Lou Gerhig * Charles Lindbergh * Aviation * Henry Ford (in …
If Bill Bryson wrote history textbooks, my knowledge on the topic would likely be improved ten-fold. He’s such a great storyteller, he’s able to suss out the interesting details that make people, places and times come to life.
In One Summer, he specifically focuses on the events of 1927, though - in honesty - it seems like that’s kind of an excuse for him to write about whatever he found interesting in the first quarter of the century, since he often backtracks to provide back-story leading up to the events of 1927. Regardless, it’s a great ride. One of the reviews I read criticized the book for being disjointed because Bryson hops from topic to topic without a clear plan. That might bother some people, but I didn’t find it distracting.
This book touches on:
* Babe Ruth * Lou Gerhig * Charles Lindbergh * Aviation * Henry Ford (in general, but also the Model T, the Model A and - most interestingly - Fordlandia, which was new to me) * The mafia (specifically Chicago and Al Capone) * Prohibition * Hollywood
Review of 'One Summer: America 1927' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I love Bill Bryson books.... this one was a bit different.
I skimmed over the baseball and boxing stuff - I know its very important to the American psyche, but my mind just could not take it in.
However, I have a picture of the USA now that is VERY different to before I read this book. I guess my impression of the fun loving democracy comes from post war and WW2 knowledge, the 1920's was a new area to me. Stunning and savage at times the level of graft, hypocrisy, racism and downright nastiness exposed.
Review of 'One Summer: America 1927' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Who cares about the summer of 1927? If the author was anyone other than Bill Bryson, I would have been skeptical. He uses the summer of 1927 as a jumping off point for well-researched stream of consciousness discussions about topics as diverse as air travel, boxing, baseball, fear of immigrants, economic policy, crime, and Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover is always around. It is sort of creepy.
I love all of Bill Bryson's books and I especially like listening to them on audio.
