2024 the best years of our lives reviews review

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max

For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves.

Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Reprint edition (February 5, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525432442
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525432449
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.19 x 0.98 x 8 inches
Reviewer: Jim Brown
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: How People Can Rebuild Small Towns After Economic Calamity
Review: The authors are regular contributors to the Atlantic. This book grew out of an idea -- to learn how people in small-to-medium sized towns can rebuild/reinvent their communities if they are willing to separate themselves from the polarized world of national politics. The places they study are in red and blue states, have red and blue ideas, but mostly have leaders that don't think in red and blue. They visited several dozen towns throughout the US, spent several weeks in each, getting to know the town, what is happening to give them new life. The calamities can be the closing of factories, the loss of a military base, the end of an industry that caused the town to be there in the first place. The end of coal mining in some towns, the end of logging or fishing in others, as those natural resources have been either worked out or are no longer competitive. Shopping centers and strip malls lead to the destruction of downtown businesses.There are many examples of public/private partnerships, nearly all where the owner of a large company decides to "give back" to the community. Where people who grew up there, left for school, worked for a while somewhere else, and returned home. The unifying theme is that natural leaders (sometimes elected, but often not) take the bull by the horns and develop things that put the town back on a growth track. A coffee house, a brew pub, innovative schools that teach what people need to know for the new economy, help for immigrants (many of the towns studied have strongly benefited from immigrants, who often replace locals who have moved away). In more than a few of these towns, there was a leader who introduced the concept of developing hubs for technical and business innovation -- everything from facilitating business startups, to welcoming scientists and computer programmers to develop software that can be used by the local or regional economy. In Fresno, for example, someone is thinking about software apps to help the farmers in the great Central Valley operate more efficiently.This book is interesting throughout if you care about how people in other places live. I've travelled quite a bit, but I often found myself looking up places on the map. And if you care about our country and our people, it is truly inspirational.

Reviewer: ulysses4
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: First, the Good News....
Review: You can look up at the night sky and get a good picture of what all those suns looked like millions and millions of years ago. If you visited a city 10, 20 or 30 years ago, your impression of the place might be equally dated. James and Deborah Fallows undertook a "100,000+' mile journey around America for three or four years examining where there might be some positive directions in places that had been hit hard by economic tidal waves, shifting demographics and/or other phenomena that were beyond their control. Despite massive dysfunction in national politics, they have found considerable evidence of growth and optimism, laced with hard work.Some common denominators were a realistic assessment of what went wrong; the energy and creativity in educational institutions, appreciation of quality of life factors, the welcoming and contribution of new immigrants; the focus on getting a few things right with a new direction and majority community participation.Frankly, the book often becomes tedious. The picture of many community leaders is often two dimensional. One can only appreciate so many references to swimming pools and elementary schools. Their affection for small airports and brew pubs may or may not resonate. But the patient. disciplined and contrasting window on places that don't get a lot of positive press coverage is worthwhile. In my prior life, I spent weeks in random places (wherever my company was involved in serious litigation). I nearly always came away with a respect, and sometimes an affection, for places I would rarely have sought out on my own. It's good to know there is still a lot of constructive energy in many small cities and towns in Middle America.

Reviewer: Mike Nowicki
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: NIce sleeper of a book
Review: If you like hearing about interesting small town history this is your book. It is especially helpful if you travel and want to see some "non touristy" places in average towns throughout the US

Reviewer: Zeeb3
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Boosterism
Review: This book is written by a man and woman, professional journalists, who fly a plane to scads of smaller American cities and, presumeably, give an objective view of the quality of life in each city. The writing is good and the details are interesting. I'm about 75% through the book, and I'm growing weary of unflagging optimism about the future of the communities. It's almost as if the Chambers of Commerce had paid for promotional space. There's at least one hero or heroine in each city that is devoting life to making all things better. There are two communities yet to read about with which I'm very familiar, and, in fact, I bought the book to see what's said about them. I'll render final judgment after that. Meanwhile, I'll try to overlook the grins and fist pumping.

Reviewer: Jack R Bertges
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book if you want to travel to many not so well-known cities and towns.
Review: The book was a gift and it was delivered quickly

Reviewer: VF
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Historical piece
Review: The contacts and depths of travel, insight, and thought made this an enjoyable book. It will be used years from now to remember how the time was when they visited.

Reviewer: John Butler
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A good antidote for today‘s spirit of political divisiveness
Review: I enjoyed reading about the Fallows‘ exploration of American towns and small cities. They make an interesting point about local community spirit overcoming national political divisiveness. My only negative reaction Is that the book gets a bit repetitive, because they found pretty much the same types of community activism at work in most of the places they visited and therefore repeat the same observations several times. In all, however, a good and uplifting read!

Reviewer: Notler
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Doesn't pull punches on the negatives, but essentially explores and highlights very positive local endeavours toward making the USA a successful, functioning entity. From Maine to Mississippi to California, provides numerous examples of people from different backgrounds, with differing political opinions, working together for the betterment of their towns. A marvelous read.

Reviewer: Elmer Fudd Gantry
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: None of these towns were mine, 18 stars

Reviewer: Nambu
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: James and Deborah Fallows are highly qualified to describe the American experience in small towns across the country, which they covered in their small private plane over a five year period. They usually visited each community once for a general glance, then returned for in-depth interviews and visits to local businesses and organizations after significant preparation. The Fallows team has lived and written in many parts of the world, including Japan and China, and across the U.S. and they are both balanced and insightful. An excellent read for anyone interested in what makes America work today, on a local level.