If you're from Upstate- and it's getting to the point where you're more likely to be from Upstate than to still reside here- you'll recognize a great deal in the trials of Batavia. Where this book is weakest, it is still strong- those passages about the dunderheaded mistakes of the Progressives that turned a beautiful western New York down town into just another piece of American strip malled blight are good, but it has been done better by James Howard Kuntsler. If you're looking to get angry, pick up one of Kuntsler's books - the Geography of Nowhere, for instance.
Where this book is strong, it is fantastic. Kauffman is the president of his county's historical society (I have recently gotten into the local historical societies in my town and county- wonderful groups! find yours!) and this book is really just that- a history of the people of his city. This book is the biography of a town- a town that may have tried to kill itself, and continues to do so- but a town worth knowing.
This isn't Kauffman at his best- (I'm partial to Look Homeward, America) - but it is a great look at a fascinating town, by someone who knows it well, and loves it.
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