Our Towns

A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

By: James Fallows, Deborah Fallows

Narrated by: James Fallows, Deborah Fallows

***NATIONAL BEST SELLER***

A vivid, surprising portrait of the civic and economic reinvention taking place in America, town by town and generally out of view of the national media. A realistically positive and provocative view of the country between its coasts.

For the last five years, James and Deborah Fallows have been traveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, they have met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the prospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a political campaign.

The America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but itis also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

Positively local

Cooperation at the local government level can work wonders. Very encouraging story.
Turn off the national news.

A big dive into what makes America great!

Jim and Debra Fallows are able to get at the heart of each town they visit by meeting not just the movers and shakers, but the doers, the workers, and makers. No politics, just a broad slice of what is right with our world!

Great book for those in community leadership positions

Great insight into what makes great towns. Would recommend for those in leadership positions that want to make a difference in their communities.

Great book. Female voice hard to listen too.

Really positive good story and message. Female Narrator tough to hear. I do recommend book.

Fallows fanboi

As a radical moderate, I recommend this book as a palliative to the manufactured Manichaean vision for our country.