One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson, a Book Review

Since I was a kid I was impressed with the impact to the sports and aeronautical worlds of the year 1927. Hard news was impactful as well.

Sports gave us Jack Dempsey’s loss on the “long count” to Gene Tunney and Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs. To be complete it gave us the entire 1927 Yankees team, arguably the greatest baseball team ever assembled.

Aeronautics gave us the first solo transatlantic flight by Charles Lindbergh. He’s still around in the Lindy hop by which Americans can still dance to rock music. Those of us in San Diego have spent many an hour at Lindbergh field as well.

Very hard news, gave us the era and year pathetically of eugenics and theories of racial superiority taken to their horrible extreme shortly by the Nazis. The Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti felt the horrible sting of prejudice as well in their prosecution and conviction.

Mr. Bryson covers this and more. In his conversational writing style addressing a year full of vibrancy and change, Bill Bryson has created a gem for any student of American social history. Very few of us were alive in 1927 but this fine author manages to bring the year to life for all of us. Don’t miss this engaging work.

H. Robert Rubin, memoirist and author of Look Backward Angel, an e-book on Amazon and How Did I Get Through This? to be published on Amazon this year