One Summer

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson, 509 pages

Babe Ruth. Charles Lindbergh. Sacco and Vanzetti. Calvin Coolidge. Al Capone. Herbert Hoover. Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. These were the big names in the summer of 1927, and in One Summer, Bryson offers up a fascinating in-depth look at that momentous summer:

• It's the summer that Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris. 
• It's the summer that, against all expectations, an aging Babe Ruth broke his own record to hit 60 home runs in a single season (and led the best-roster-ever Yankees to a World Series win). 
• Calvin Coolidge spent most of the summer in South Dakota, fishing and making the decision to not run for re-election, though he did briefly hop into some ceremonial work to mark the groundbreaking of Mount Rushmore. 
• Herbert Hoover also spent a lot of time in the Midwest that summer, helping the region recover from a monumental flood of the Mississippi River. 
• Alleged murderers Sacco and Vanzetti were executed, despite shaky evidence and worldwide calls for clemency. 
• The Jazz Singer was released as the first talking picture, while radio was reaching its peak of popularity.
• Television was invented, and demonstrated in public for the first time.
• An aging Jack Dempsey fought Gene Tunney in the biggest boxing match to that point, 
• And Al Capone celebrated the last of his heydays before being arrested the following year.

Any one of these could be (and often has been) fodder for a book on its own, but here Bryson looks at all of them, and more, in the context of the national and international culture. It's an astounding collection of stories, brilliantly woven together with bits of Bryson's trademark humor. Highly recommended for history buffs.