Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

by James Fallows, Deborah Fallows

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525432449
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/05/2019
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	486,557
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

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 five grandchildren.

Read an Excerpt

Montgomery County traffic, Cirrus Four-three-five Sierra Romeo taking Runway one-four, VFR departure to the west. Montgomery.
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Our Towns"
by .
Copyright © 2019 James Fallows.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Authors’ Note 

Introduction: 2017: A Last Trip West 

2013
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 
Rapid City, South Dakota 
Holland, Michigan 
Burlington, Vermont 
Eastport, Maine 

2014
Greenville, South Carolina 
St. Marys, Georgia 
Columbus, Mississippi 
Caddo Lake, Louisiana-Texas 
In the Air 
Columbus, Ohio 
Louisville, Kentucky 
Allentown, Pennsylvania 
In the Air 
Duluth, Minnesota 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
Charleston, West Virginia 

2015
In the Air 
Guymon, Oklahoma 
Ajo, Arizona 
San Bernardino, California 
Riverside, California 
Redlands, California 
Fresno, California 
Winters, California 
Bend, Oregon 
Redmond and Prineville, Oregon 
Chester, Montana 
The American Prairie Reserve, Montana 

2016
Dodge City, Kansas 
Garden City and Spearville, Kansas 
Erie, Pennsylvania 

What We Saw and What We Learned 
10½ Signs of Civic Success 

Afterword
 
Acknowledgments 

Editorial Reviews

"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—and a fervent commitment to be there to see it happen.... In these cities, the Fallows argue, citizen participants are coping with declining industries, creating new civic cultures, assimilating waves of immigration, and collaborating across party-lines to revive everything from arts programs to tech seedbeds."—David Brooks, The New York Times

"A tonic of a book about the can-do America unready to succumb to rot."—Roger Cohen, The New York Times

“I’ve been waiting for this book for years. . . . Buy this book. . . . This country is more united than divided...and this book will prove it.”—Joe Scarborough, co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC

“Knowing the Fallows and their work, I assumed this new co-authored book of theirs would be typically savvy, sensitive, articulate and prescient. What I didn't expect was how a record of experiences of current middle American communities, through their lenses, would be such a page turner! I've guessed for many years that real change in this world would be effected by and within small communities—places where people feel connected and capable of impact on some larger scale. Our Towns is a monumental validation of that hypothesis—with real stories and real people, who are really getting things done. James & Deborah—thanks for your journey, your open and honest observations, and helping to shine light for us at the end of many tunnels.” —David Allen, author of Getting Things Done; the Art of Stress-Free Productivity

“Our Towns will become a classic, joining the ranks of American odysseys from De Tocqueville to Dos Passos. The landscape unfurls beneath us; the language of different regions echoes in our ears. Most important, this book is a tonic for what ails us as a nation, a captivating story of energy and renewal across the land.” —Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO, New America

“In the tradition of John Steinbeck and Studs Terkel, the Fallows have crisscrossed the country in search of the extraordinary strength and character of ordinary people and places. What they’ve found—in towns we know and others off the beaten path—should give us all great hope for the future.” —California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.

"Reminiscent of Charles Kuralt's On The Road with Charles Kuralt, this unique look at the heart of America will bring hope and insight to readers. Highly recommended."—David Miller, Library Journal 

“An illuminating trip through ‘parts of the country generally missed by the media spotlight.’ . . . Writing with lively curiosity and open minds, the couple have created textured portraits of 29 American cities, from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Eastport, Maine, to Redlands, California. . . . A well-reported, optimistic portrait of America’s future.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An eye-opening, keenly optimistic reminder of the strength of America’s vital center.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

There is a feeling that can set in after a long road trip, and I speak here from recent experience, that America is one vast expanse of fast-food restaurants, car dealerships and water parks. One does not leave jet travel, squeezed into 41A next to a sweaty man in cargo shorts, all that inspired with this land of ours either. But what James and Deborah Fallows manage to show us, as if we were riding along with them on their craft…is that much of America's vibrancy is off the beaten path.

The New York Times Book Review - Marc Lacey

03/12/2018
Creativity, know-how, diversity, and public-spiritedness are the perhaps surprising national trends unearthed in this exuberant exploration of economic development in Middle America. In researching the book, husband-and-wife journalists James Fallows (China Airborne) and Deborah Fallows (Dreaming in Chinese) flew around the country in their prop plane surveying unsung renaissances of cities and small towns. They find commonplaces—like the ubiquitous downtown-revitalization quartet of tech-startup incubator, waterfront bike path, arts festival, and microbrewery—as well as idiosyncrasies: Bend, Ore.’s marijuana shop; Duluth, Minn.’s growing aviation sector; new factories and vocational training in Columbus, Miss., and cutting-edge fashion design in Columbus, Ohio. Unlike the usual community-activism narratives, the authors spotlight a civic establishment of urban planners, development officials, strong mayors, and business boosters; they also cite as keys to prosperity brainy innovators at universities, hard-working immigrants, and citizens willing to raise taxes for needed government services. The Fallowses’ reportage from fly-over territory occasionally feels schmaltzy—“n the Best Western breakfast room, Miss Nettie was making grits and biscuits”—and they skirt troubling features of development strategies, like the antiunion animus of Southern states. Still theirs is an eye-opening, keenly optimistic reminder of the strength of America’s vital center. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Scattered across the nation, from Maine to Oregon, Arizona to Georgia, there are small towns doing amazing things. OUR TOWNS, written and read by James and Deborah Fallows, offers an engrossing, entertaining, and, at times, surprising look at some of these places. Over the course of five years (from 2012-2017), the Fallowses flew their single-engine plane to the four corners of the country. They are excellent chroniclers of interesting places and the people who make small towns tick. While not professional narrators, the Fallowses's reading of their audiobook does give it a kind of “small-town” feel. OUR TOWNS is an engaging listen about parts of the U.S. that are often overlooked. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

JULY 2018 - AudioFile

Scattered across the nation, from Maine to Oregon, Arizona to Georgia, there are small towns doing amazing things. OUR TOWNS, written and read by James and Deborah Fallows, offers an engrossing, entertaining, and, at times, surprising look at some of these places. Over the course of five years (from 2012-2017), the Fallowses flew their single-engine plane to the four corners of the country. They are excellent chroniclers of interesting places and the people who make small towns tick. While not professional narrators, the Fallowses's reading of their audiobook does give it a kind of “small-town” feel. OUR TOWNS is an engaging listen about parts of the U.S. that are often overlooked. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

JULY 2018 - AudioFile

2018-02-26
An illuminating trip through "parts of the country generally missed by the media spotlight."Between 2013 and 2017, Atlantic national correspondent James Fallows (China Airborne: The Test of China's Future, 2013, etc.) and his wife, Deborah Fallows (Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language, 2011, etc.), traveled nearly 100,000 miles in their small plane, making two-week stops in 25 cities and shorter visits to another 24. They visited libraries and bars, schools and businesses; talked to politicians, civic leaders, newly arrived refugees, students, social service workers, and others to get a sense of "the backbone and character of the region" and, by extension, of the whole country. Writing with lively curiosity and open minds, the couple have created textured portraits of 29 American cities, from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Eastport, Maine, to Redlands, California. Central to a city's or region's success, they discovered, were "the stories people tell themselves" about their "traits and strengths." Burlington, Vermont, for example, changed its identity from largely a retirement community to a research and technology center where local companies encourage startups. Although the city struggles with drug culture and "tensions between old-family Vermont residents and new arrivals," civic engagement, one resident said, "is the absolute heart of what keeps the city palpitating." Although all but one of the states visited voted for Donald Trump in 2016, the authors found no evidence of "the seething fury described by the media." Instead, they noted "humming, stylish" downtowns—essential for a city's success—in places like Columbus, Ohio, and Greenville, South Carolina, each the result of efforts by business, civic, and educational organizations. They found innovative schools, like the Mississippi School for Mathematics and the Arts, a public boarding school in Columbus, Mississippi, where students—some of whom grew up in a shack or trailer—were building robots. The authors assert that distancing themselves from national politics, fostering collaboration between government and businesses, and keeping open to outsiders, including immigrants, all contribute to a city's vitality.A well-reported, optimistic portrait of America's future.

Kirkus Reviews