An American Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana, 1927 (Quarry Books) [Paperback]

Tom Roznowski (Author)

Book Description

Series: Quarry Books | Publication Date: November 17, 2009

They lived "green" out of necessity—walking to work, repairing everything from worn shoes to wristwatches, recycling milk bottles and packing containers. Music was largely heard live and most residential streets had shade trees. The nearby Wabash River—a repeated subject of story and song—transported Sunday picnickers to public parks. In the form of an old-fashioned city directory, An American Hometown celebrates a bygone American era, focusing on life in 1920s Terre Haute, Indiana. With artfully drawn biographical sketches and generously illustrated histories, noted musician, historian, and storyteller Tom Roznowski not only evokes a beauty worth remembering, but also brings to light just how many of our modern ideas of sustainable living are deeply rooted in the American tradition.

(2010)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Roznowski has the storyteller's skill for isolating relevant detail and employing rhetorical flourish to illuminate both character and scene." —Jacob Jones, University of Maryland,

(Jacob Jones, University of Maryland 2010)

"Tom Roznowski uses an innovative way to capture the image of Terre Haute in 1927. The City Directory listings become a social history carried along by humor, deep feeling and a sense of national history. The prosperous and famous share the stage, as they should, with ordinary residents. Even those living at the County Poor Farm find their rightful place in the fabric of community." —Dorothy W. Jerse, On the Banks of the Wabash: a photograph album of Greater Terre Haute 1900-1950, 1983, IUP

(Dorothy W. Jerse On the Banks of the Wabash: a photograph album of Greater Terre Haute 1900-1950 )

"Tom Roznowski has deployed the 1927 City Directory of Terre Haute like a mist net across time to catch a vanished place. An American Hometown is part Akenfield--Robert Blythe's portrait of an English village--and part Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology. Terre Haute, 1927, is more alive than many American cities today." —Howard Mansfield

(Howard Mansfield )

"Tom Roznowski brings the lost world of a city back to life, and in so doing asks us to re-imagine the way we live now." —Bloom Magazine

(Bloom Magazine )

"For Roznowski, the pursuit of the past is not an exercise in nostalgia, but an attempt to bring wisdom forward—to learn not just from our mistakes as a culture, but from the things we did right as well, and then left by the wayside in the 20th century's mad dash to a consumerist, automobile-centered society." —Bloom, February/March 2010

(Bloom )

"Roznowski is an evocative, romantic storyteller, and his research revives a simpler time and place not far from here." —

(The Herald Times )

About the Author

Tom Roznowski, based in Bloomington, Indiana, is a writer and musician. He is host of Hometown, a radio program broadcast by NPR affiliate WFIU.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Quarry Books; First Printing edition (November 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253221293
• ISBN-13: 978-0253221292
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, December 12, 2009

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An American Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana, 1927 (Quarry Books) (Paperback)

An American Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana 1927 offers an amazing snapshot of an ordinary American town shortly before the onset of the Great Depression. Presented in a "city directory" style, listing the names of famous people, places, and institutions followed by brief (ranging in length from a paragraph to a couple pages), descriptive biographical or historical text entries. Vintage black-and-white photographs pepper this cross-section of Americana, revealing the ins and outs of ordinary people's lives almost a century past. Highly recommended.