America, 1908

“An entertaining survey” (Publishers Weekly) through the highs and lows of a spectacular, pivotal year in American history—1908. A captivating look at a bygone era through the lens of a single, surprisingly momentous American year one century ago. 1908 was the year Henry Ford launched the Model T, the Wright Brothers proved to the world that they had mastered the art of flight, Teddy Roosevelt decided to send American naval warships around the globe, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series (a feat they have never yet repeated), and six automobiles set out on an incredible 20,000 mile race from New York City to Paris via the frozen Bering Strait. A charming and knowledgeable guide, Rasenberger takes readers back to a time of almost limitless optimism, even in the face of enormous inequality, an era when the majority of Americans believed that the future was bound to be better than the past, that the world's worst problems would eventually be solved, and that nothing at all was impossible. As Thomas Edison succinctly said that year, “Anything, everything is possible.”

Jim Rasenberger

Prologue: Leap Year

PART I
Chapter One: The Boy and the Machine
Chapter Two: Thin Ice
Chapter Three: Mysteries of the Unknown Parts
Chapter Four: Middle Earth and the Night Riders
Chapter Five: Ultima Thule

PART II
Chapter Six: The Man Bird
Chapter Seven: Heat
Chapter Eight: The Color Line
Chapter Nine: A Month of Late-Summer Days

PART III
Chapter Ten: The Certainty of the Future
Chapter Eleven: The Path of Deliverance and Safety
Chapter Twelve: The Modern Definition of Life
Acknowledgments and Sources
Index