{"product_id":"2940157868277","title":"Vincennes History You DON'T Know:The 20th Century in the Town by the Wabash","description":"Virtually everything that happened in U.S. 20th century history happened in Vincennes, Indiana. This compilation of columns from the local paper, edited for book readers, reflects a compendium of human experiences in the United States of the 1900s: the coming of the automobile, lighting of the electric lights on Main Street, mine accidents and bank robberies,  airplane stunt flying over the town; trucks replacing the horse-drawn fire engines;  a Teddy Roosevelt visit and a Lillian Russell performance.  German Americans are under suspicion in 1918; the gold star mothers visit France to see their sons' graves. The talkies come to the cinema and the town cheers when beer arrives after prohibition; the local girls, the \"Alices,\" dance with soldiers at the USO and segregationist George Wallace visits in the 1960s to a cold reception.  \u003cbr\u003eBut it is also a chronicle of the strengths and beauties as well as the idiosyncrasies of human nature.  Local characters probably common to every middle-sized town in Indiana are depicted; the bee man and his honey and the national goat expert; the blind violin player at the station. We learn about the peony farm and the coming of the talkies;  southern Indiana court cases over hogs and tomatoes, the fox hunts which net only 6 foxes but which are traditional.\u003cbr\u003eWhat are the values of Hoosier life in the last century: they're obvious here as the citizens run into the streets to help when there are tragedies, when the town's children demand that a mine pony be rescued after a cave-in, when doctors and nurses work themselves to exhaustion treating burn victims from a steam plant accident. Reading this book of columns which take us through the 20th century in a medium-sized Hoosier town, we will wish to return to Vincennes Indiana, circa 1910, or 1940. Those are the days when a town was really a group of people trying to make the best in Hoosier life possible for their families and their neighbors-- and \"everybody knows your name.\"","brand":"Hawthorne Publishing IN","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47171721003248,"sku":"2940157868277","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940157868277_p0.jpg?v=1764105374","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940157868277","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}