Bill Bryson - One Summer

For sheer reading pleasure it's hard to beat this popular history of the summer of 1927.  Bryson has written a number of books on various subjects.  This one represents a great accomplishment of research and enjoyable writing.

Alot was going in the summer of 1927.  Babe Ruth was on his way to 60 home runs, a baseball record that stood until 1961.  Bill Tilden ruled the tennis world and Jack Dempsey and GeneTunney fought an epic and highly discussed boxing match at Soldier Field in Chicago before 150,000 people.  Al Capone ruled Chicago before his abrupt downfall shortly thereafter.  Prohibition was disrupting the country. The invention that lead to television came in 1927.  The dog Rin Tin Tin goes back to the 20's.  Who knew?  President Coolidge spent most of the summer of '27 in South Dakota.  Work began on Mount Rushmore.  The racist Herbert Hoover became the odds on favorite for the Republican presidential nomination when Coolidge announced that he would not run in 1928.  Then there was Charles Lindberg, the main subject of this book.

I have never quite undertood the popularity of Lindberg.  After reading this book, I still don't understand.  My conclusion is that you would had to have been there to understand.

So many interesting people race across the pages of this enthralling book.  The Roaring Twenties certainly roar in this book.