Drive. Story atbecame the that point in their lives. Susan how did the idea come to you for telling the story at this time . Jeff when i try to do when i write nonfiction books is to go everywhere where the people i write about went. I always use my car. Id rather drive and that way you really get a sense of place. Somewhere along the line in the 30,000 or so miles i drive every year i started wondering how we got to be a country, a culture where we take for granted and we can get in a car and go anywhere we want to. I thought it would be a good idea to write a book about that and as always happens when you look into history, theres more to it than you ever expected. Susan your book begins and ends with someone thats a minor character, jeff bixby. Who was he and why was he interesting to you . Jeff one of the things that struck me as i researched the book was the vagabonds and edison and whoever may be with him on that trip could literally change the lives of anyone they met. They were
Susan we want to listen to just a little bit of jeff bixbys music so people can get a sense of what interested ford and edison. Susan just a little bit of the music. Would a lot of americans be listening to music of this type of this era . I would rather drive you get a sense of place. Somewhere along the line in the 30,000 or so miles i drive every year i started wondering how we got to be a country, a culture where we take for granted we can go anywhere we want to. Since i didnt know i thought it would be a good idea to write a book about that. Your book begins and ends with a somewhat minor character. Who was he and why was he interesting to you . Jeff was an elderly country fiddler working out of michigan playing barn dances and so forth, and that was pretty much the height of his musical career. He was listed in local archives as a shoe maker. Henry ford had heard about his sic and unexpectedly in 1923 his wife opens their door in this little tiny isolated town and there stands he
What is the story you tell . The story, to tell us how america morphed into a car culture to everyone wanting to get into cars and go places. I had not known until i started researching that henry ford and Thomas Edison were at the forefront of this. Idea come to you for telling the story at this time . This is my 22nd book. What i do when i try to do when i write nonfiction books is to go everywhere where the people i write about went. Id rather drive and that way you really get a sense of place. Somewhere along the line in the 30,000 or so miles i drive every year i started wondering how we got to be a country, a culture where we take for granted and we can get in a car and go anywhere we want to. I thought it would be a good idea to write a book about that and as always happens when you look into history, theres more to it than you ever expected. Susan your book begins and ends with someone thats a minor character, jeff bixby. We are going to show his picture on screen. Who was he a
Author jeff quinn. You open your most recent book, waco, with this quote from rick perlstein, the historian. A fog of crosscut motives and narratives, the complexity that defies storybook simplicity at a that is usually the way history happens. I think the quote is the most cogent of ever heard. Rick does a tremendous job himself and its true. Know historic event happens in a vacuum. Its tied to many other things. And thats the fascination in research and writing on narrative, nonfiction, history. What i read a quote from you as well, and this is from 2021 in the cleburne times review. A lot of people no longer want to buy nonfiction to learn things. They want nonfiction books to reflect what they already believ want books to reinforce their opinions. They want books that tell them everything they believe is absolutely right and that the other side is even worse than they thought. If you take a look at the bestseller list for nonfiction, for the last several years, theres three categor
Author jeff, you opened your recent book with this quote from Rick Perlstein the historian. Crosscutting motives and narratives the complexity that defies storybook simplicity that is usually the way history happens. I think it is the most cogent ive ever heard. Rick does a tremendous job himself, and its true no historic event happens in vacuum. Its tied to many other things and that is the fascination in research and writing on the narrative nonfiction history. To read a quote from you as well and this is from 2021 in the cleburnene times review a lt of people no longer want to buy nonfiction to learn things. They want nonfiction bks to reflect what they already believe, books to reinforce their opinions. They want books that tell them everything they believe is absolutely right and that the other side is even worse than they thought. If you take a look at the bestseller list for nonfiction for the last several years, theres three categories generally represented. The first books by