Small Town [Hardcover]

Granville Hicks (Author), Warren F. Broderick (Introduction), Ron Powers (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0823223574 | ISBN-13: 978-0823223572 | Edition: 1

Granville Hicks was one of America's most influential literary and social critics. Along with Malcolm Cowley, F. O. Matthiessen, Max Eastman, Alfred Kazin, and others, he shaped the cultural landscape of 20th-century America. In 1946 Hicks published Small Town, a portrait of life in the rural crossroads of Grafton, N.Y., where he had moved after being fired from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for his left-wing political views. In this book, he combines a kind of hand-crafted ethnographic research with personal reflections on the qualities of small town life that were being threatened by spreading cities and suburbs. He eloquently tried to define the essential qualities of small town community life and to link them to the best features of American culture. The book sparked numerous articles and debates in a baby-boom America nervously on the move.Long out of print, this classic of cultural criticism speaks powerfully to a new generation seeking to reconnect with a sense of place in American life, both rural and urban. An unaffected, deeply felt portrait of one such place by one of the best American critics, it should find a new home as a vivid reminder of what we have lost-and what we might still be able to protect.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a portrait of rural life and what Hicks thought was good about American culture." -- Rensselaer TU

"A ground-breaking sociological study..." -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Highly recommended reading for students of twentieth century American culture and History." -- Wisconsin Bookwatch, March 2005

"One of the most important works ever written on problems faced by the small town and rural America..." -- Independent, 10/24/04

About the Author

Granville Hicks (1901-1982) wrote prolifically for more than fifty years-reviews and essays in The New Masses (which he edited), The New Republic, Saturday Review, and The Nation, and utopian novels and works of literary history and criticism, including the influential The Great Tradition.

Warren F. Broderick is an archivist for the New York State Archives in Albany and writes on local, American literary, and Native American history. He lives in Lansingburgh, N. Y., not far from Grafton. Ron Powers is the author of Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain, as well as Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore, and coauthor of the bestseller Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, he lives in Middlebury, Vermont.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823223574
• ISBN-13: 978-0823223572
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,419,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and timeless portrait of life, March 6, 2005

By 

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

This review is from: Small Town (Hardcover)

Granville Hicks (1901-1982) wrote reviews, essays, novels, and works of literary history and criticism for more than fifty years. In 1946 Hicks wrote Small Town in which he gave his readers a fascinating and timeless portrait of life in the rural crossroads of Grafton, New York. This was a small community to which had had moved after being fired for his left-wing political views from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In Small Town, Hicks combined hand-crafted ethnography research with his personal reflections on the qualities of small town life as they were being threatened by post-war encroachments by spreading cities and expanding suburbs. Hicks eloquently defined the essential qualities of small town community life and linked to hem to the best features of American popular and political culture. Long out of print and highly recommended reading for students of twentieth century American culture and history, this new edition of Small Town is enhanced for a new generation of readers with an informed and informative introduction by Warren F. Broderick and a preface by Ron Powers.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Straight out of Grafton..., May 11, 2006

By 

dwight moody (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Town (Hardcover)

I grew up in Grafton New York, and according to my parents I had dinner with Mr. Hicks when I was two years old. While I don't recall the event, I'm sure a good time was had by all. The author scrambles local names and geography enough to make identifying individuals difficult, but I understand that some people took offense to their portrayals in the book.

"Small Town" is an interesting book, but it is guilty of romanticizing rural life over and over again. Mr. Hicks makes frequent reference to the "amazing ability of small town folks to work internal combustion engines", something for which he has no knack. He doesn't seem to make the logical connection that people who have all their capital bound up in farm equipment learn how to fix it themselves.

Asigning nobility to the necessary is tempting, and sometimes it is true. The rigors of life in a town where farming is profitless and industry is non-existant can cause people to act in noble ways.

Grafton has changed a lot since Granville Hicks wrote the book on it. Small Town mentions a divide between long-time residents and city folks who've moved into town. This has solidified into the divide between educated middle-class people who's children almost inevitably move to a different town, and those who's families are from the area who continue to work irregularly at the lumber mills and commute to dead-end jobs in larger towns. There is little socializing between the two groups, and that divide is probably the most notable thing about Grafton in this day and age.