Press

“Fallows says that in several areas – civic engagement, returning talent, growth of tech start-ups, downtown revitalisation, an openness to immigrants and thriving libraries – local America seems to be…

“The credo of reporting—you know, what you don’t know till you show it—that’s my ‘this-I-believe.’ That’s the reason I’ve stayed in this line of work for this many decades because…

“But by contrast, city by city by city in most parts of the country, even those dealing most seriously with the opioid disaster, even those that have had the most…

“When they arrived they asked questions, just not the ones you’ve seen on television. They didn’t ask who people voted for, or where they stood on President Trump or Hillary…

“The Central Valley is often included when folks disparagingly reference “flyover country” or “the heartland” — those parts of the country that don’t touch an ocean, that some might rather…

“There’s a paradox that I think all of us in the media need to grapple with, which is that polls show that people think it’s really a terrible time for…

“In place after place, “Our Towns” captures a sense of energy and confidence among local leaders working to tackle the problems in their own communities. Schools trying out wildly creative…

“Forget National Dysfunction. America’s Cities Are Blooming. Fresno Among Them.”

“Redlands native James Fallows and his wife Deborah have been crisscrossing the U.S. in a single-engine prop airplane searching for answers to what does and does not make this country…

“Most of the cities tell a redemption story about themselves. They had a booming industry; it collapsed; now they are rebuilding with new industries and new wealth.”

“As the authors dropped from the sky into communities from Sioux Falls, S.D., to Duluth, to Ajo, N.M., to Burlington, Vt., to St. Mary’s, Ga., they slowly pieced together a…

“If Greenville had a “separated at birth” twin city, the most likely candidate is Burlington, Vermont, according to James and Deborah Fallows, co-authors of the book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile…

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“Our Towns is admittedly an anecdotal analysis. But the Fallows’ on-and-off journeys between 2012 and 2017, when they studied more than two dozen communities in so-called flyover country by flying…

“An impulse for soon-to-be readers clutching a copy of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America will be to wonder whether they’ve visited or lived where James…