A brilliant slice of the very rich life that was going on in America in the summer of 1927, from Charles Lindbergh to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Al Capone, Al Jolson, Clara Bow, and innumerable other colorful figures. Bryson squeezes in many monumental events including Lindbergh’s historic solo flight, Babe Ruth’s pursuit of a 60-homerun season, the invention of television, the heyday of radio, the dawn of the talking motion picture and so much more. A better popular history would be difficult to find.

One thing I found intriguing is that the author clearly is not American and did not write this book for a North American audience alone. As mentioned above, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the rest of the 1927 New York Yankees, feature prominently in this book. Bryson takes a significant amount of time to explain the basic terminology and rules of baseball. While not every North American reader is familiar with the game, no American writer would have bothered.