{"id":72550,"date":"2019-02-20T18:58:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T00:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=72550"},"modified":"2019-02-20T18:58:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T00:58:10","slug":"journey-across-america-with-thacker-mountain-radio-on-february-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/journey-across-america-with-thacker-mountain-radio-on-february-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey Across America with Thacker Mountain Radio on February 21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Off Square Books<\/strong> and The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour<\/strong> (TMR) will host nationally bestselling authors James<\/strong> and Deborah Fallows<\/strong> for a discussion of their book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America<\/em><\/strong> on Thursday, February 21. Just out in trade paperback, the book is a unique, revelatory portrait of the civic and economic renewal taking place today across America, town by town and generally out of view of the national media, and it presents a surprisingly hopeful view of the country between its coasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the last five years, James and Deborah Fallows have been\ntraveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of\ntowns, they have met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators,\nenvironmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city\nplanners, students, and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the\nprospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a\npolitical campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The America they saw is acutely conscious of its\nproblems\u2014from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge\u2014but it is also\ncrafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with\nthe bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a\nnational level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level.\nThe Fallows describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves.\nTheir view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself,\nbut it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and\nthe determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our\nTowns <\/em>is the story of their journey\u2014and an account of a country busy\nremaking itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Fallows has been a national correspondent for The\nAtlantic<\/em><\/strong> for more than thirty-five years, reporting from China, Japan,\nSoutheast Asia, Europe, and across the United States. He is the author of\neleven previous books. His work has also appeared in many other magazines and\nas public-radio commentaries since the 1980s. He has won a National Book Award\nand a National Magazine Award. For two years he was President Jimmy Carter<\/strong>\u2019s chief speechwriter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deborah Fallows is a linguist and writer who holds a PhD in\ntheoretical linguistics and is the author of two previous books. She has\nwritten for The Atlantic<\/em>, National\nGeographic<\/em><\/strong>, Slate, The New York Times<\/em><\/strong>, and The\nWashington Monthly<\/em><\/strong>, and has worked at the Pew Research Center, Oxygen\nMedia, and Georgetown University. She and her husband have two sons and five\ngrandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rounding out TMR\u2019s show will be musical performances by singer-songwriter Bailey Bigger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bigger is a Marion, Arkansas<\/strong> native now based in Memphis<\/strong>. Her latest release is the five-song EP, Closer to Home<\/em><\/strong> (Blue Tom Records). Her song \u201cWildflower\u201d won the Memphis Songwriters Association<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cMemphis Best Song of the Year\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thacker Mountain will be at Off Square Books on February 21 beginning at 6 pm with host Jim Dees<\/strong> and house band, The Yalobushwhackers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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