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.