Description
Book SynopsisFlyover Country focuses on a group of baby boomers who graduated from high school in 1969 in the Midwest before setting off into the world in a time of turbulence to fight in Vietnam, to protest against that war, to find jobs, to have families, and to live lives throughout the United States and overseas. Many of these people have made significant contributions to their communities as business owners, doctors, lawyers, ministers, politicians, and teachers. Many have suffered through tough times, losing their way due to alcohol or drugs or facing family crises from divorce to the death of a spouse or a child. The story also is Harper''s story. It is the story of a kid from flyover country who used what he learned in the Midwest to travel throughout the world as a journalist and then as a college professor to try to teach those lessons to his students.
Trade Review…In Flyover Country you'll meet the dreamers, poets, stoners, jocks, cheerleaders, and anonymous faces that were part of the Class of '69. Then, you'll meet them again, as they are today. Travel the hard road with Harper as the lessons of high school teach him to walk in the deepest black forests. -- Ken Mills, inductee, South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association Hall of Fame and public radio commentator
The impressions of Chris Harper's classmates, mixed with his own….are assembled masterfully to provide us with a revealing picture of Americans living in what the author calls flyover country in two turbulent times —- the 1960s and today. -- Steven Seidman, author of Posters, Propaganda, and Persuasion in Election Campaigns Around the World and Through History
…Harper combines the eye of a foreign correspondent with the heart of a poet. He says important things about American culture, about the heartland versus the coasts, about the allure of nostalgia, about the importance of high school as a time of life that shapes us, about the baby boomer experience, about family, and about the pathos of aging. I loved the book. -- Barry Strauss, chair and professor, Department of History, Cornell University
A candid, collective portrait of the highs and lows of daily life, Flyover Country seeks to impart invaluable lessons to future generations, and is highly recommended especially for public library collections. * Midwest Book Review *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Chapter One: Growing Up Chapter 3 Chapter Two: Glory Days? Chapter 4 Chapter Three: Moving On Chapter 5 Chapter Four: Working Chapter 6 Chapter Five: Family Chapter 7 Chapter Six: Hard Times Chapter 8 Chapter Seven: Believing Chapter 9 Chapter Eight: The Class of 2009 Chapter 10 Chapter Nine: Reflections from Forty Years Ago and Forty Years Apart Chapter 11 Chapter Ten: One More Time with Feeling Chapter 12 Bibliography
