Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America - James Fallows

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Résumé :
***NATIONAL BEST SELLER***

A vivid, surprising portrait of the civic and economic reinvention taking place in America, town by town and generally out of view of the national media. A realistically positive and provocative view of the country between its coasts.

For the last five years, James and Deborah Fallows have been traveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, they have met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the prospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a political campaign.

The America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems-from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge-but itis 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.

Biographie:
JAMES FALLOWS has been a national correspondent for The Atlantic for more than thirty-five years, reporting from China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and across the United States. He is the author of eleven previous books. His work has also appeared in many other magazines and as public-radio commentaries since the 1980s. He has won a National Book Award and a National Magazine Award. For two years he was President Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter.

DEBORAH FALLOWS is a linguist and writer who holds a PhD in theoretical linguistics and is the author of two previous books. She has written for The Atlantic, National Geographic, Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Monthly, and has worked at the Pew Research Center, Oxygen Media, and Georgetown University. She and her husband have two sons and four grandchildren.

Sommaire:
Authors' Note ix

Introduction: 2017: A Last Trip West 3

2013
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 21
Rapid City, South Dakota 37
Holland, Michigan 41
Burlington, Vermont 50
Eastport, Maine 61

2014
Greenville, South Carolina 81
St. Marys, Georgia 101
Columbus, Mississippi 110
Caddo Lake, Louisiana-Texas 132
In the Air 140
Columbus, Ohio 144
Louisville, Kentucky 169
Allentown, Pennsylvania 176
In the Air 193
Duluth, Minnesota 200
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 214
Charleston, West Virginia 218

2015
In the Air 225
Guymon, Oklahoma 230
Ajo, Arizona 233
San Bernardino, California 248
Riverside, California 265
Redlands, California 274
Fresno, California 286
Winters, California 305
Bend, Oregon 315
Redmond and Prineville, Oregon 333
Chester, Montana 338
The American Prairie Reserve, Montana 343

2016
Dodge City, Kansas 351
Garden City and Spearville, Kansas 371
Erie, Pennsylvania 376

What We Saw and What We Learned 395
10? Signs of Civic Success 401

Acknowledgments 411