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Ernie's America: The Best of Ernie Pyle's 1930's Travel Dispatches
Offering a rich and colorful portrait of America during the latter years of the Depression, this anthology of articles by the famed journalist provides an incisive look at Americans, their trials and tribulations, triumphs, and lifestyles
423 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 11, 2008
I had to read this one after reading the book about Pyle in World War II, which included many of his columns. Pyle really could write, and I believe his works should be brought forth more into the classroom. You are immediately a better writer for reading Ernie Pyle and this book of his travel dispatches didn't disappoint any at all.
He makes you feel your senses in his work, and even some of the best modernday travel writers can't do that as effectively as he could. He could make you feel emotion, too. He wrote these during the Great Depression, but his prose is quite uplifting.
Pyle was great, and he deserves much more recognition than he has received. Don't take my word for it -- just read his stuff. You'll like it.
He makes you feel your senses in his work, and even some of the best modernday travel writers can't do that as effectively as he could. He could make you feel emotion, too. He wrote these during the Great Depression, but his prose is quite uplifting.
Pyle was great, and he deserves much more recognition than he has received. Don't take my word for it -- just read his stuff. You'll like it.
November 14, 2023
“Four score and seven years ago..’ words spoken by Abraham Lincoln as he honored those who fought at Gettysburg and appealed to the rest of the nation to support the war to save the union that declared itself free in 1776. Many among the people gathered that day may have reflected how life and the world had changed in their lives during those 87 tumultuous years. Todays’ reader of Ernie’s America are also taken back 87 years to a time so different that it’s nearly unrecognizable- the mid to late 1930s. Pyle wrote that he lived “the best life, because you’re independent.” Government was active during the time of FDR’s reign and with the subsequent World War, America changed forever. Pyle’s world is as strange to the modern reader as was the time of Revolution to those gathered at the Civil War cemetery. Ernie Pyle allowed me to reminisce about a time when the nation’s citizens were still proud of their country and their government. Life was hard in the 1930s yet Pyle found his subjects optimistic for America’s future.
Pyle made his mark as a World War II correspondent, but he honed his reporting skills as a roving reporter years before The war. This collection Contains samples of his prewar work and worth reading.
Pyle made his mark as a World War II correspondent, but he honed his reporting skills as a roving reporter years before The war. This collection Contains samples of his prewar work and worth reading.
May 19, 2016
1930's America, a thousand words at a time.
Pyle no longer wanted to be the managing editor of the Washington Daily News so he convinced his bosses to let him travel the nation and write a column, 1,000 words a day. This volume is a sampling of these columns. They're arranged more or less by geography and because Pyle made multiple trips across/around/through the country they're not in chronological order. Topics vary widely, mostly about the characters he met in the world but sometimes about events forty or fifty years before his time. He for the most part avoided writing about "news" but some of that worked its way in regardless.
The language is jarring at times, but that's a reflection more of the era than of the man.
Pyle no longer wanted to be the managing editor of the Washington Daily News so he convinced his bosses to let him travel the nation and write a column, 1,000 words a day. This volume is a sampling of these columns. They're arranged more or less by geography and because Pyle made multiple trips across/around/through the country they're not in chronological order. Topics vary widely, mostly about the characters he met in the world but sometimes about events forty or fifty years before his time. He for the most part avoided writing about "news" but some of that worked its way in regardless.
The language is jarring at times, but that's a reflection more of the era than of the man.
August 30, 2023
Ernie Pyle is most famous for his dispatches during WW2. He spent his time with the ordinary soldiers fighting in Europe and Asia. Unlike his contemporaries, he thought the real story, the story that most Americans wanted to read, was about their neighbors and friends. Before the war, he spent years traveling the length and breadth of the US writing about ordinary Americans.
His dispatches were plainly written but clearly the hand of a master storyteller was at work. He would pull into a town and ask locals who had a great story or who knew the most about a town. He interviewed victims of the dust bowl, modern day cave dwellers and trappers among many many others. Some of the accounts when read now are abrasive to the modern ear. He often describes people using their race or ethnicity as a way of describing them but never in an unkind or pejorative way. Among those he interviewed were ex-slaves; one in particular had been the slave of President Andrew Johnson. He was careful to note that although the man thought Johnson had been a good master, it would have been better to have been free. Pyle liked the South least among all of the regions and did not spare his readers from understanding that practices such as lynching African Americans still existed.
Pyle did not hide aspects of his own emotional life and wrote moving pieces about his family and rural life in Indiana where he grew up. This book is a treasure as it is an eye witness account of the thirties by a master
His dispatches were plainly written but clearly the hand of a master storyteller was at work. He would pull into a town and ask locals who had a great story or who knew the most about a town. He interviewed victims of the dust bowl, modern day cave dwellers and trappers among many many others. Some of the accounts when read now are abrasive to the modern ear. He often describes people using their race or ethnicity as a way of describing them but never in an unkind or pejorative way. Among those he interviewed were ex-slaves; one in particular had been the slave of President Andrew Johnson. He was careful to note that although the man thought Johnson had been a good master, it would have been better to have been free. Pyle liked the South least among all of the regions and did not spare his readers from understanding that practices such as lynching African Americans still existed.
Pyle did not hide aspects of his own emotional life and wrote moving pieces about his family and rural life in Indiana where he grew up. This book is a treasure as it is an eye witness account of the thirties by a master
June 11, 2024
Humble honest reporting of life in mostly small town America and Canada as it was between 1935 and 1941. It is an expansive view into a period of America’s history at a personal micro-level.
Dozens of stories dispatches and commentaries that reveal much about Pyle but more so the psyche of citizens of the time. Pyle’s stories explore politics societal norms race and religion morality ethics of the day as well as changing economic conditions from depression and dustbowl to isolationism and war fears.
I have read Pyle’s, World War II dispatches, and also Ernie Pyle in England. Pyle was well known revered, even famous before World War II and these stories are why. His roving reporter experiment was a hit and lasted over six years when he answered to call to follow the troops into Europe
The stories about Indianapolis, preparing for war, and my own hometown Buffalo preparing for a war and the west coast, preparing for war are just fascinating.
There are two or three essays here were Pyle talks about his mother that are incredibly heartfelt.
My mother Marlee Bragdon Hill Monroe (Colby Class of 42) worked for one of Scripts Howard’s publications during the war years and was a writer for multiple newspapers during her career 1942-1992. She was a fan of Pyle and bequeathed her collection of his books to me.
Dozens of stories dispatches and commentaries that reveal much about Pyle but more so the psyche of citizens of the time. Pyle’s stories explore politics societal norms race and religion morality ethics of the day as well as changing economic conditions from depression and dustbowl to isolationism and war fears.
I have read Pyle’s, World War II dispatches, and also Ernie Pyle in England. Pyle was well known revered, even famous before World War II and these stories are why. His roving reporter experiment was a hit and lasted over six years when he answered to call to follow the troops into Europe
The stories about Indianapolis, preparing for war, and my own hometown Buffalo preparing for a war and the west coast, preparing for war are just fascinating.
There are two or three essays here were Pyle talks about his mother that are incredibly heartfelt.
My mother Marlee Bragdon Hill Monroe (Colby Class of 42) worked for one of Scripts Howard’s publications during the war years and was a writer for multiple newspapers during her career 1942-1992. She was a fan of Pyle and bequeathed her collection of his books to me.
July 24, 2021
Pyle’s columns, starting sometime in 1935 it would appear, with the last one being after his visit to London to cover the war.
Pyle traveled all over the country with his wife, talking to famous as well as everyman. Sometimes sounds to me like he is a little loose with the facts, but whether the topic is mundane or incredible, he is always interesting, at least to me, and apparently to much of the American public as well, because his column was incredibly popular. He sometimes shared details about his family life as well , whether his mother’s health (and death), or his wife’s emotional health. Interesting, too, were his views on the government’s efforts to relieve the travails of the poor. He was definitely a Roosevelt man.
Pyle traveled all over the country with his wife, talking to famous as well as everyman. Sometimes sounds to me like he is a little loose with the facts, but whether the topic is mundane or incredible, he is always interesting, at least to me, and apparently to much of the American public as well, because his column was incredibly popular. He sometimes shared details about his family life as well , whether his mother’s health (and death), or his wife’s emotional health. Interesting, too, were his views on the government’s efforts to relieve the travails of the poor. He was definitely a Roosevelt man.
May 11, 2023
I love Ernie. He is the love of my life. Except the controversial parts of him. He’s a lil whiny but I still love him. Okay but actually, I’ve if the greatest reporters of all time and truly encompasses everything I hope to do and see in my lifetime.
July 5, 2023
No question, Ernie Pyle could write about people in a way that makes you wish you could meet the people in person. Nevertheless, knowing how sad he himself was in real life added poignancy to every word, for me.
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August 2, 2014If you like writing and USA history this a good first person account of the growing up of America.
It was fun to read he even sent a dispatch from a local town on the St Croix River.
It was fun to read he even sent a dispatch from a local town on the St Croix River.
July 10, 2016
I was excited to find this collection as Ernie Pyle is one of my favorite essayists. I was not disappointed.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews