One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson (2013) – Spanning four months in 1927, the book takes us on a tour of a year with massive historic and cultural significance. Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic and becomes the biggest star on the planet. The biggest flood in American history wreaks devastation through the center of the nation, the “talking picture” debuts, as does television. Meanwhile, one of the least active presidents in American history takes a three-month vacation from the job. It’s a time filled with great stories, which the book tells well.

Why I Liked It: The combination of good history told well is an irresistible combination!

This is another entry to my list of “How Have I Never Read This Author Before?” Bryson is first a charming and funny writer. He has that wonderful ability to create a work that is easy to read. All of that is the perfect balance to his detailed look at the subject at hand. While not the standards of academic history, this book will both inform and entertain you. Plus, his output ranges over a wide range of subjects, from science to Shakespeare to, well, nearly everything.

In this book, he looks at a “high point” in American history. Our nation emerges from the First World War as a rising power in the world that wasn’t sure it wanted to be any such thing. By 1927, the economy is booming, innovation is all around, baseball was the national pastime and the greatest of all the Yankee teams was at its height. Babe Ruth would create a new standard for hitting by driving sixty baseballs over various walls. At the same time, the year would bridge from the foolish to the fatal. “Shipwreck Kelly” set a record for sitting on a pole, while the government executes Sacco and Vanzetti as anarchists.

All of the book fascinated me, but two stories jumped out. First there is the story of the first great worldwide media sensation. Charles Lindbergh was a terrible choice to ill that media icon role. “Lucky Lindy” was a great pilot, and his feat of flying solo across the Atlantic was spectacular. Several others had tried, only to die somewhere in the vast expanse of the ocean. But he was a taciturn, awkward celebrity. While he accepted that in order to cash in on his fame, he disliked the constant distractions from the only thing he enjoyed: flying. The foreshadowing of what would happen to him a few years is haunting. It is the fame and fortune that begins this summer that will lead to the kidnapping of his son five years later.

On the other hand, my opinion of Calvin Coolidge (and Herbert Hoover) dropped after this book. Coolidge never wanted to be President, inheriting the role when Warren G. Harding died, then running because there wasn’t much reason not to in 1924. The economy was booming, the world was at peace, and people didn’t expect him to do all that much. Which he did with gusto. Imagine a president moving out of the White House for three months. And choosing a destination with virtually no communication. There’s a reason he finishes so low on most historian’s presidential polls (as does his successor Hoover).

I really loved this book. I look forward to reading some of his other stuff. If you prefer your history done in accessible, tell-the-story style, you’ll enjoy it as well.

Rating – **** Recommended