One Summer: America, 1927
- ISBN-10
- 0385537824
- ISBN-13
- 9780385537827
- Series
- One Summer
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 528
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-10-01
- Publisher
- Anchor
- Author
- Bill Bryson
Description
A Chicago Tribune Noteworthy Book A GoodReads Reader's Choice In One Summer Bill Bryson, one of our greatest and most beloved nonfiction writers, transports readers on a journey back to one amazing season in American life. 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.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
One Summer
By David BaldacciDavid Baldacci delivers a moving, family drama about learning to love again after terrible heartbreak and loss in this classic New York Times bestseller—soon to be a Hallmark original movie.
-
This One Summer
By Mariko TamakiIt's a summer of secrets, and sorrow, and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other. This One Summer is a tremendously exciting new teen graphic novel from two creators with true literary clout.
-
One Summer: A Novel
By Karen RobardsBut in Tylerville there was no place to go, and even if he gave them the slip for the night, they knew where to find him on the morrow. Johnny pulled into the parking lot and braked, still straddling ONE SUMMER - 99.
-
One Summer In Paris
By Sarah MorganIf you enjoyed One Summer in Paris, don’t miss Sarah Morgan’s wonderful new book, Family for Beginners! ‘A complete joy.
-
It Happened One Summer: A Novel
By Tessa BaileyUSA TODAY BESTSELLER Tessa Bailey is back with a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood “It Girl” who’s cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a ...
-
Hawai'i One Summer
By Maxine Hong KingstonFrom a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and numerous other honors, the essays in this collection provide readers with a generous sampling of Kingston’s exquisite angle of vision, her balanced and clear-sighted prose, and her ...
-
One Crazy Summer
By Rita Williams-GarciaSet during one of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned them—an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of ...
-
Suddenly One Summer
By Julie James"If you need a great read to throw in your beach bag, make sure Suddenly One Summer is one of your choices."--USA Today
-
One Summer: A Shelter Bay Novel
By JoAnn RossWhen former U.S. Marine photojournalist Gabriel St. James arrives in Shelter Bay to help out a fellow Marine, the last thing he expects is to meet a woman like Charity.
-
One Special Summer
By Jacqueline Kennedy OnassisIn 1951, eighteen-year-old Lee Bouvier and her twenty-two-year-old sister Jacqueline took their first trip to Europe together. Jackie had already spent a year in France living with a French family...