One Summer: America, 1927
Ratings50
Average rating4.1
I've always loved pretty much everything Bryson writes, from his travel books to his biography of Shakespeare. He successfully meanders from topic to topic but carries you along without making you feel disjointed. Personally this was a part of American history I had poor knowledge and I learnt a lot without feeling lectured to.
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.
A great reference of events that took place during that time, and what an exciting time it was! I took away a star because the wealth of information conveyed seemed confusing in certain places. When explaining one particular event, the author often refers to a number of others which almost seem like he's going off on tangents - it's hard sharing history without going off topic at times, but it's these aside stories that really make the main topic come to life for me. It was just a bit difficult for me to keep track of it all which forced me to reread certain passages more than once. Overall, an enjoyable read.