One Summer

America, 1927

De: Bill Bryson

Narrado por: Bill Bryson

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.

another gem by bill bryson

It's the combination of great narration, a little bit of United Kingdom dialect, the understated way Bryson tells the story, and knowing the listener has no responsibility to remember any of it....that make Bill Bryson's gems such a wonderful listening experience.
To summarize, listen to be wonderfully entertained, even if you don't recall one morsel of what the book actually was about.

Anecdotal telling of history for one pivotal year

I've always loved 1927 America and I love this book. The author ties together the three biggest single events of 1927: Jolson Speaks, The Babe Swats, and Lindbergh Dares and ties them altogether into a coherent narrative. The unfolding of these and other events reveal the process of the times.

The author wonderfully reads his own book. He's not a professional reader by any means, but he adds the humor, anger or surprise that only an author of his own work could add at the appropriate spots.

The author, Bill Bryson, puts each major event in its proper context and is at his best when he's not in 1927 but is telling you the before and after stories of the characters. Not to be too much of a spoiler, The Babe is amazing and Lindbergh is a dud (racist, pro-nazi eugenicist, philanderer).

I love the book, it is marvelously read, I learned a lot, but I would only recommend it for lovers of 1927 or at least the 1920s, and if you do love that period of time by all means get it and enjoy.

Rich with Facts and Historical Phenomenon

Great story about a largely forgotten era. Key figures and events make for moments intrigue every minute. The readers vocal tone may leave something to be desired but the story makes up for it in droves.

Another great Bryson book

I have read and loved all of Bill Bryson's books. In this one, Bryson takes many moments in American history and masterfully weaves them together to create an enormously enjoyable book. I highly recommend it.

Maybe His Best

I never would have thought that a book based mainly in one summer could captivate and produce such a good novel. It is pretty amazing to learn about that impactful summer, and Bryson does a great job threading it all together. Would recommend this to anyone who like US history and often wonders of how life was in a time not too long ago. It is time that is just out of reach to touch the present (meaning the people and technology are gone) but not out of mind.