One Summer: America, 1927

Bryson does a phenomenal job in creating an in - depth account, while keeping the entire discussion in a conversational tone. His ability to immerse the reader in the period he writes about truly makes the experience feel as if you are living in 1927 yourself, which is a rare feat to accomplish.

This is only my second Bill Bryson book, but "One Summer" certainly encourages me to read more. Although the title suggests the coverage will focus on 1927, the book in reality is a much broader perspective on important personalities and events of the entire decade of the 1920s and in some cases even beyond. For example, while Lindbergh's flight was in the summer of 1927, Bryson devotes considerable attention to his entire life, personality, and related events. This is not all a drawback - in fact, it gives the reader a much broader perspective on the whole decade. Now and then, Bryson gives a summary of what actually happened in the summer of 1927, and people who were prominent that year are the ones who dominated the decade. But Bryson also covers players other than the stars. For example, he gives considerable attention to various aviators who attempted the Atlantic both before and after Lindbergh. In fact, I got a bit tired of all the detail about such people, even though they did throw light on Lindbergh's accomplishment, especially since most of the other players ended up either in the Atlantic Ocean or crashing at the end of the takeoff runway. This same inclusive trend was apparent for other 1927 celebrities as well. Babe Ruth was a star in the book, but other players such as Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb also were in the picture. Bryson's writing is precise, witty, and highly entertaining. The best aspect of the book is that Bryson reveals so much about personalities - Hoover, admittedly a man who solved many world problems, from European hunger to Midwest flood relief, was strong on self-promotion and short on social niceties. Coolidge comes off even less involved than his traditional image. Sacco and Vanzetti remain enigmas - did they do it or not? And the book is certainly no hagiography for the heroes of the age - Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, etc. - nor the villains, such as Al Capone. All in all, "One Summer" is my kind of history. Covers the main events, but adds snippets that most historians would pass over; also, related details that humanize personalities and give the reader a real sense of what the decade was about. The reason I rate the book 4-1/2 stars rather than 5 is that some aspects were covered in a bit too much detail. But I found the book highly informative and great fun to read. I think we could have done without the long epilogue, however, or been better off with a condensed version. Too many folks ending up with mental problems, too much alcohol, or other unfortunate tragedies.

A great book. Written with wit and insight. That year is known the Great Depression, but so much more was going on.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing among the stacks at the cavernous Harvard Coop bookstore. I stopped in my tracks when I saw that Bill Bryson had written a new book, "One Summer: America, 1927." I knew I had to have it. I have been devouring Bryson books as fast as I can get my hands on them. Among his titles that have delighted me over the past several years are "A Walk in the Woods," "In A Sunburned Country," "At Home: A Short History of Private Life." I knew that the Summer of 1927 had been remarkable because the New York Yankees team that season was considered one of the best teams ever assembled on a baseball diamond. I had no idea of the other achievements and events that stacked up one upon the other during that summer. Among the events that Bryson chronicles in this new book are Lindbergh's non-stop flight from New York to Paris, Babe Ruth's quest for a new home run record, President Coolidge's retreat to a three-month long vacation near Mt. Rushmore that coincided with the beginning of the work on the iconic presidential sculpture in that remote site. Then there were the rash of terrorist attacks by anarchists, the famous trial of Ruth Brown Snyder for the "Sash Weight Murder"of her husband, the dramatic Dempsey-Tunney boxing match, Al Capone's cozy relationship with Chicago Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson, the continuing impact of Prohibition, Sacco and Venzetti's executions and the protests that preceded and followed that event, tennis star Bill Tilden's winning streak, the use of radio for live broadcasts of sporting events, and the decision made by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York along with the central banks of England and France to lower interest rates. Bryson makes the case that this decision set the wheels in motion for the Stock Market Crash of 1929. In addition, some of the most severe weather ever recorded - floods, tornadoes, heat waves - led to death and destruction over much of the nation. Part of Bryson's gift as a writer is that he weaves together non-fiction information in a way that makes it read like a suspense novel. At several points along the way in this book, he highlights the interplay among the events and characters that made the Summer of 1927 such a signal time in America. Several themes emerge in this book that become leit motifs: The corruption and incompetence of public officials at all levels of government The spirit of adventure in the new world of aviation that led to public acclaim for the aviators and public acceptance of aviation as a viable transportation choice. The role of sports in American life - especially baseball and boxing The widespread deleterious effects of Prohibition and the Volstead Act. How laissez faire was President Coolidge's approach to the Presidency, especially in contradistinction to the pro-active work that Hoover and then FDR would do in trying to pull the country out of the vortex of The Great Depression. My parents were children during the Summer of 1927, so it was enlightening for me to imagine them and their families reacting to the events that Bryson describes so graphically in this book. If he keep hitting literary home runs like this for a few more years, he may come close to Babe Ruth's home run record! Enjoy! Al

In this work of popular history, the author digs behind the headlines of 1927. As to why 1927 is most deserving of focus is not necessarily clear, but there is no lack of happenings that grabbed the public’s attention. Beyond the national tragedy of the massive Mississippi River flood and the occasional sensational murder trial, the most important development of 1927 was the attempt to show that airplane travel could be viable. There were many attempts to cross the Atlantic in either direction in absurdly underequipped planes manned by pilots with more daring than skill. Death is what awaited virtually all of those reckless adventurers, with the lone exception being young Charles Lindbergh from Minnesota. An aloof, solitary man, Lindbergh, in addition to being a highly gifted pilot, took every practical measure that he could and consequently was able to fly nonstop and solo from Long Island to Paris in May, 1927, in about 40 hours. The instant fame from that event was astonishing, but the price was high. Much to his immense discomfort, the public would not leave him alone over the next several years until he expressed admiration for the policies of the Nazis. Babe Ruth had been a larger than life figure for several years, but 1927 brought his fame to its highest level. The 1927 Yankees demolished the opposition, but Ruth’s assault on his previous homerun record captured the attention of the entire US. That his name is still well known today testifies to his prodigious baseball abilities and his persona. The author also focuses on the beginning of the end of silent films with the introduction of the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer. He also takes delight in showing that President Calvin Coolidge took the concept of a do-nothing presidency to unprecedented levels. Henry Ford gets the prize for showing that a man with a brilliant concept, that is, the mass production of Model-T’s, is capable of nearly destroying what he created with his own close-mindedness and eccentricities. Not all characteristics of that era are to be celebrated or looked at fondly. The author talks about the rise of organized crime due to Prohibition, the rising membership in the Ku Klux Klan, and the support of eugenics by even leading voices of opinion. He scarcely mentions the shaky underpinnings of the financial boom underway in 1927 that would bring about the horrendous financial catastrophe of 1929 lasting over the next decade. The book is mildly interesting, but is hardly profound. It is a bit of this and that concerning events and personalities, presented in a rather hodgepodge manner. The book is meant to be, above all, entertaining. Broader implications are left to others.

If ever a book should have an accompanying CD, Bill Bryson's "One Summer, America 1927" is that book. Cue the music, maestro: -- "Seventy six trombones led the big parade," which begins in May with Lindbergh & the first trans-atlantic flights, followed by --"Take me Out to the Ball Game," with June's Babe Ruth, and his peerless peers including Lou Gehrig, continuing with -- "It's a Grand Old Flag," in which we meet August's vacationing President Calvin Coolidge and those around, before, and after him, concluding with --"Darth Vader's March," September & summer's end---whose brutal solemnity echoes Sacco & Vanzetti's lives, the height of the Klu Klux Klan, and the prosecution (& persecution) of anarchists, Fascists, and those thinking differently The almost 500 pages of "One Summer, America 1927" can hardly contain these events and these men, and it doesn't even try to. The book is as fractal as the coast of Maine. A character or theme is introduced: don't go away, it won't have its arc completed where it first appears, but is followed in asides & interludes in succeeding pages. Like life itself, where happenings are spread out & we just learn to pick up the theme & follow it when it re-appears. There's Henry Ford and his story; the financial gang of four whose summer of 1927 plotting & ploying probably pushed the economy over the cliff in 1929; Clara Bow, that darling girl whose voice sadly for her & us all twanged harshly upon the ear when talkies arrived; the gallant & ambitious & competitive & at times manipulative aviators who did not make it across the Atlantic (peace be on their memories). And Herbert Hoover, who combined a genius for egotistic self-promotion with extra-ordinary management skill, a fine man for disasters, untouched it would seem with the milk of human kindness. We elected him president in 1929. Oh, and Al Capone & the rooting, tooting story of Prohibition and the remarkable woman, lawyer Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who laid him low for income tax evasion. Leading off? Those ill-fated lovers of the 1927 Sash Weight Murder case. Bryson is the drum major of this parade, high-bouncing, gold-hatted, & be-plummed with curiousity, fascination, a passion for details, and writing his most readable prose. Stepping back, however, several themes run through: --his love of baseball and the noble science of boxing. You want to know who else was on Babe's 1927 Yankee team? Here are their bios, every one (pp. 219-222)with names in bold-face type. And the scores of almost every game, as well as the size & shape of the bat-boy and the changes, intrigues, and drama of baseball's resurrection when the Babe first came to bat. --the sense of America's proud high noon, between the wars, when symbolically with Lindbergh's flight and literally, America become a dominant world force, the leader, and by-and-large, we did so in benign ways --the darkness at noon in America as well as abroad, the virulent anti-Communism, anti-Fascism that saw enemies in butchers and bakers; the more horrible, if this is possible, anti-Semitism that saturated Lindbergh the hero, that imbued Henry Ford, that was almost a common-place in thought and language; and the ugly, cruel, devastating discrimination against African-Americans. "One Summer, American 1927" can be read lightly, in the human interest of the stories and revelations of let's say unusual details ("He liked his head massaged with Vasaline when he was breakfasting") and going from the top-of-one-wave to the next in achievements & celebrations. This is, however, also a book about serious & enduring issues, ones that can slow down the turning page and quiet the ebullient music. "What can be said," writes Bryson,summing up Lindbergh with information emerging after his death, "is that the greatest hero of the twentieth century was infinitely more of an enigma and considerably less of a hero than anyone had ever supposed." (p.441) So it goes, for many about whom Bryson writes. Yet, the heroism & the greatness were there too as "One Summer, American 1927" can help us see. Any negatives? At times, unlike some of Bryson's earlier books, the writing seems stitched together, giving here and there a sense of some cut-and-paste, edited by that high-bouncing drum-major. None-the-less, this is an ambitious, grand, and often wise book from one of our well-loved authors. "American muse," wrote Stephen Vincent Benet in the invocation to his "John Brown's Body, "whose strong & diverse heart, So many men have tried to understand...." Readers may feel Bryson has invoked this muse and that she has, in her strong & diverse way, answered.

I'm a longtime Bryson fan, but it's been a while. My dad was born in 1927, so being transported in time was so helpful in understanding the world my grandparents began their family in.

Bill Bryson is a spectacular writer. Here he proves it by taking a narrow topic (the summer of 1927), retelling well known facts (Lindbergh flew to France, Ruth hit 60 home runs, Al Capone ran Chicago, Calvin Coolidge appeared lost), and weaving in more interesting items to tell a great story. The Lindbergh section is the glue that holds this together. We learn that not only was Lindbergh one of many aspirants to collect the $25,000 prize for flying to Paris, Slim was easily the least prepared or likely. He was up against well-heeled factions like our local Virginia family of great explorers and politicians, the Byrds, as well as others who seemed incapable of engineering or taking off, but were strong in self-promotion and criminality in at least one case. Even Lindbergh's future father-in-law had invested in another group, although that was before he or his daughter had met the lucky, but odd young man from Minnesota. 1927 was as good as it gets for Lindbergh. His subsequent story line transitions quickly from meeting with kings and presidents, to kidnapping, self-imposed exile, eugenics, Hitlerism, and unbelievable stupidity in his politics and speeches. Ruth and Dempsey were the sporting heroes of the age and they had Gehrig and Tunney to push them to greatness. Gehrig ended up never really besting Ruth and hating him immensely before a rapproachment in their later days when both were dying young. Dempsey like Ruth was the people's favorite. Not many remember now that boxing was bigger than any team sport in 1927. Special trains brought folks from across the country to see Dempsey fight, although at 700 feet distance in Soldier Field, you needed to buy the early edition to know who won. The politicians of the day were a combination of checked out long ago types like Coolidge, self-promoting wonder boys like Hoover, and those with free-roaming libidos like Harding. Apparently neither Bill Clinton nor his boyhood hero Kennedy invented the White House tryst. Coolidge spent the summer of 1927 in South Dakota, taking a break from working four hours a day as President to focus on fishing and building Mount Rushmore. In addition to anarchy, the other failed social experiment of 1927 was prohibition. That led to a lot of accidental poisoning and the rise and fall of Al Capone. Alcohol was still produced in huge quantities for industrial production (less so today) as well as medicinal purposes. So we needed a network of agents to control alcohol distribution. Since the states no longer had the alcohol tax revenues they were not interested in its control, leaving the job to the rising class of federal agents.

Bill Bryson takes us back to the USA of a hundred years ago, focussing on the months between May and September 1927 and introducing us to people whom we've probably heard of such as President Calvin Coolidge (and his successor Herbert Hoover), baseball players Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, boxers Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, and aviator Charles Lindberg, who made the first solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris on May 20-21 in the Spirit of St Louis. Digging deeper, he tells us about, for example, Clifford Holland, the designer and chief engineer for the tunnel under the Hudson River which connected Lower Manhattan and Jersey City; the stress of working on this project caused Holland to have a nervous breakdown, followed by a fatal heart attack at the age of 41. The tunnel was named in his memory when it was opened in 1927 (and even though the same fate befell his successor as chief engineer after four months on the job, he received no commemoration). As is characteristic of Bryson's books, this one is packed with eye-catching details like this, including: * the life expectancy of a British pilot in 1917 was put at just eight days [p17] * when Lindberg and Donald Hall, the designer of The Spirit of St Louis, realised they had no idea of how far it was from New York to Paris, they "went to a public library and measured the distance on a globe with a piece of string" [p74] * not only did Babe Ruth famously greet President Coolidge at a match with "Hot as hell, ain't it, Prez?", but he also referred to the holders of a party as the "hostess and hoster" [p181] * during WWI, anti-German sentiment was so rife (following - for example - the sinking of the RMS Lusitania en route from New York to Liverpool) that William Harding, the governor of Iowa, outlawed the public use of foreign languages. This included churches, where Harding proclaimed that "God is listening only to the English tongue" [p228] * one of the problems facing Henry Ford's construction of Fordlandia, a model American community in the jungles of Brazil, was the candiru, a little fish which is alleged to swim into the human urethra and then extend backward-facing spines which made it difficult to extract [p331]. * during a spate of domestic parcel bombing, all the parcels bore a (false) return address of Gimbel Brothers department store in Manhattan. One parcel was returned there for insufficient postage, whereupon the unsuspecting clerk "opened the package, examined the odd contents - bottle of acid, timer, explosives - then packed it all up again, added the necessary postage and mailed it on" [p369]. * John Logie Baird, demonstrator of the world's first live working television system in 1926, so disliked the portly chairman of the board which had been foisted on his company that he narrowed the doorway to his lab, necessitating the chairman to be pushed through from behind when he got stuck on his first (and last) visit [p495]. Such nuggets make this an entertaining and stimulating read. The other thing which struck me was the depth of incompetence, corruption and/or wickedness exhibited by some (not all) of the politicians of the time, culminating in (the admittedly extreme example of) William "Big Bill" Thompson, mayor of Chicago (1915-23, 1927-31), who was openly allied with Al Capone, claimed that George V was intent on annexing Chicago, and set about removing all works deemed treasonous or un-American from the city's schools and libraries. Just as striking was the degree of support which he enjoyed from the voters and - to some extent - the media. Other examples came from the cabinet of Warren Harding, Coolidge's predecessor, in which the military advisor had formerly been his newsboy, the head of the Veteran's Bureau managed to steal or lose $200 million and the interior secretary corruptly sold oil leases (one of which was in a place known as Teapot Dome, which gave its name to the ensuing scandal) in return for $400,000 in "loans". Later on, the Coolidge administration (described as being "dedicated to inactivity" [p89]) included Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (today commemorated in the name of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh), who introduced tax cuts which "conveniently enhanced his own wealth", had the IRS send its best men to prepare his tax returns so that he paid as little as possible, and asked the Secretary of State to help one of his companies secure a lucrative Chinese contract. Such accounts illustrate the value of reading about history (particularly in such an enjoyable book as this), because "those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it". Indeed.

As always Bill Bryson has done a thorough reseach and I enjoyed reading also this book. One gets a very good impression of the United States in those days when anarchists and gangsters were still pretty much a fact of daily life. A large amount of the book is devoted to sports hero s and for a European this may not be as interesting. Yet it was a very entertaining book.

Bill Bryson is as many will know from his other books is a fine writer.This light and entertaining book has much of which will be known by readers but some forgotten and therefore retold for them in a most engaging way. He pins much that happened throughout the decade of the twenties and even beyond around two major focal points he keeps coming back to. The first is the race for the first solo flight across the Atlantic among a cast of characters and as the reader will know won by Charles Lindbergh , and then retracing much of his speaking tour around the country and the consequent nation wide fascination with air travel; the other the extraordinary career of Babe Ruth and all the various records he broke as he really introduced the home run in a big way to American baseball. There is much much more. Full of anecdotes colour and charm you will find it hard to put down.

In seinem neuesten Buch konzentriert sich Bill Bryson auf den Sommer von 1927 (wobei "Sommer" hier großzügig von Mai bis September geht), in dem ungewöhnlich viele Ereignisse geschehen sind, von denen er berichtet: Allen voran natürlich Lindbergs Flug über den Atlantik, aber auch die Exekution von Sacco & Vancetti, der berühmte Kampf zwischen Dempsey und Tunney, die Arbeiten an Mount Rushmore begonnen, der geistige Vater der Prohibtion stirbt, die Rechtsgrundlage für die Festnahme Al Capones wird gelegt, Babe Ruth hat sein bestes Baseball-Jahr, ein Verrückter sprengt eine Grundschule in die Lift (55 Kinder sterben), das Fernsehen wird erfunden... Und über all das berichtet Bryson. Dabei geht er druchaus geschickt vor: Die Ereignisse werden monatsweise (also chronologisch) präsentiert, jeder Monat ist aber in zahlreiche Kapitel unterteilt, in denen er sich einem Ereigniss intensiver widmet - inklusive der Vor- und Nachgeschichte. Dabei hilft ihm das Format deutlich fokussierter zu erzählen, als er das normalerweise tut. Zwar flechtet er nach wie vor immer wieder seine berühmten Anekdoten ein, aber schon aufgrund der Chronologie, kehrt er immer wieder zum eigentlichen Thema zurück (Wem also störte, dass bei "At Home" bei Kapitelende nicht mehr klar war, um was es bei Kapitelanfang eigentlich ging, wird hier also mehr gefallen finden). Ich mag Bill Bryson und auch hier gelingt es ihm wieder Interessante Geschichten zu erzählen, viel neues zu berichten und er hat seinen Blick für obskure Details (und seinen Humor) nicht verloren. Wer die letzten Bücher mochte, wird auch One Summer mögen. Allerdings muss man natürlich wissen, dass es um Amerika geht - die Geschehnisse sind ausgewählt worden, um AMERIKANISCHE Meilensteile hervorzuheben und die 20er Jahre Amerikas darzustellen. Europa bleibt weitestgehend aussen vor. Auch geht es eben eher um die erwähnten Ereignisse, nicht um das Lebensgefühl der einzelnen oder so (auch wenn er gelegentlich darauf eingeht). Mich hat das allerdings nicht gestört!

El estilo ameno y divertido de Bryson nos lleva por la historia del apasionante año 27 en Estados Unidos. Un año repleto de hechos históricos en una sociedad moderna y efervescente antes del crack del 29. Ojalá todos los libros de historia fueran así. Totalmente recomendable.