One Summer : America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

Ah, 1927. Were Sacco and Vanzetti guilty? Author Bryson wavers. That controversy reigns eternal.
Was Lindbergh deserving of the smothering adulation he received for flying solo over the Atlantic. Undoubtedly, Bryson asserts. Lindbergh, who later suffered credibility for supporting Hitler, did so as many of his fellow Americans did and dissolved into ignominy. 1927 was a fabulous year.
Fabulous for Ruth and Gehrig as they led many major league teams in homers. Gehrig may have given Ruth a more robust challenge for 60 had his mother not been sick. Teammate Waite Hoyt, about Ruth, claimed he couldn't help but like that "big son of a bitch."
A fabulous summer for President Coolidge evolved in the Black Hills of South Dakota as he donned chaps and spurs and dedicated the 1927 beginning of construction on Mount Rushmore whose sculptor Gutzon Borglund died before its completion. Herbert Hoover oversaw the flooding Mississippi while America's top executioner Robert G Elliott pulled the switch on lovers Ruth Snyder Judd Gray at Sing Sing the year after he granted the favor to Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927.
Would that Philo T Farnsworth had not fooled around with the cathode ray tube that made television the mind numbing reality that it was and remains, while humanitarian Al Capone met the imbibing needs of Americans. Shame on Mabel Willebrandt for sending him up for tax invasion.
Don't forget forgettable Henry Ford, memorable Al Jolson, Clara "It Girl" Bow, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, who made the summer of 1927 unforgettable.

Yes, I know this excellent remembrance of the year 1927 is not fiction. Or is it really?