Bill Bryson Coming to Decatur in October
Decatur Metro | September 19, 2013
Bill Bryson, acclaimed nonfiction writer, will speak about his new book, One Summer: America, 1927 on October 11 at 7 p.m. in the FBCD sanctuary. The doors will open at 6 p.m. Bryson’s appearance is sponsored by the FBCD Conversations Ministry in connection with the Georgia Center for the Book, and is free to the public.One Summer transports readers on a journey back to one amazing season in American life. The summer of 1927 included the following events:
- • Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop.
- • Babe Ruth was beginning his assault on the home run record; he hit his 60th on September 30.
- • 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.
- • 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 murderous reign of terror and municipal corruption.
- • The first true “talking picture,” Al Jolson’s “The Jazz Singer”, was filmed
- • 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 One Summer transforms it all into narrative nonfiction of the highest order.
Latest from Decaturish
“Calvin Coolidge interrupted an already leisurely presidency for an even more relaxing three-month vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota.”
He remains very underrated to this day.
“I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.
Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.”
― Calvin Coolidge
“The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support.”
― Calvin Coolidge
Thanks Dem for trying to set the record straight about Prez Cool. Too many teachers today buy into the myth that the policies of Coolidge led to the 29 crash and depression. Maybe that’s because they promotes the views of Howard Zinn and his “People’s History of the U.S.”. Good to know that CSD teachers dont buy into this nonsense.
But the posting also suggests that “four bankers” (a code phrase for you know who) were responsible for the 29 crash and depression. My understanding of the 29 crash is that it started out as a normal market adjustment but made much worse by the actions of Congress, Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt, and the decision by the Fed to keep interest rates high.
But the year 1927 was probably a great year for the City of Decatur. How do I know? The next time you are strolling on the square, please note how many markers were placed in 1928 (ok, not 27 but close). These monuments, plus the building boom on the square, were signs that the Roaring Twenties were good for Decatur, and the nation also.
Calvin Coolidge is the only Vermonter to become President. That’s my favorite thing about him. Vermont is yet to produce a Miss America.
I’m going to ignore the whole “History teachers buy into Howard Zinn” as I’ve never read the book nor had it assigned throughout my many years of graduate school (oh, I guess I’m not ignoring … oh well …) to say that I’m very excited for Bill Bryson as I’ve read several of his books and have been slogging through his Short History of Nearly Everything for a goodly number of years now. Who will sit next to me?