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Small Town
Granville Hicks was one of America's most influential literary and social critics. Along with Malcolm Cowley, F. O. Matthiessen, Max Eastman, Alfred Kazin, and others, he shaped the cultural landscape of 20th-century America.
In 1946 Hicks published Small Town, a portrait of life in the rural crossroads of Grafton, N.Y., where he had moved after being fired from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for his left-wing political views. In this book, he combines a kind of hand-crafted ethnographic research with personal reflections on the qualities of small town life that were being threatened by spreading cities and suburbs. He eloquently tried to define the essential qualities of small town community life and to link them to the best features of American culture. The book sparked numerous articles and debates in a baby-boom America nervously on the move.
Long out of print, this classic of cultural criticism speaks powerfully to a new generation seeking to reconnect with a sense of place in American life, both rural and urban. An unaffected, deeply felt portrait of one such place by one of the best American critics, it should find a new home as a vivid reminder of what we have lost-and what we might still be able to protect.
In 1946 Hicks published Small Town, a portrait of life in the rural crossroads of Grafton, N.Y., where he had moved after being fired from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for his left-wing political views. In this book, he combines a kind of hand-crafted ethnographic research with personal reflections on the qualities of small town life that were being threatened by spreading cities and suburbs. He eloquently tried to define the essential qualities of small town community life and to link them to the best features of American culture. The book sparked numerous articles and debates in a baby-boom America nervously on the move.
Long out of print, this classic of cultural criticism speaks powerfully to a new generation seeking to reconnect with a sense of place in American life, both rural and urban. An unaffected, deeply felt portrait of one such place by one of the best American critics, it should find a new home as a vivid reminder of what we have lost-and what we might still be able to protect.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2004
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July 21, 2025
If you're fond of romanticising life in 1940s small-town America this book by Granville Hicks will shatter your rose-colored glasses. It's a social science look by the critic/editor/teacher/ex-communist in which he asks, "has any small town a future in this age of industrialism, urbanism, and specialization?"
The small town in question is called Roxborough but in reality was Hicks's hometown, the rural Grafton, NY, characterized in part by "intense clannishness, suspicion of outsiders, hostility to new ideas, resistance to change." It's not surprising his neighbors were displeased by what they read in Small Town (1946).
Along with somewhat snobbish observations on the more quotidian facets of rural life Hicks's cultural critique is not short on eerily relatable insights, including,
Political thinking also has deteriorated. Republicanism meant something in the past, or, rather, a series of things. At first it meant the preservation of the union and the freedom of the slaves. Then it meant high tariffs, the full dinner pail, and American prosperity. And in the twenties it meant the leadership of business interests. Most recently, however, it has meant merely opposition to Roosevelt.
Then there are the "crackpots" who "are likely to blame all our national difficulties on the fact aliens are allowed to take jobs away from good Americans or on the fact that women are not forbidden to work outside the home."
And this is from eighty years ago, fresh off the end of WWII.
Sadly, the author leaves Roxborough in the last fifth of the book as he writes more broadly about the larger society, the burden of schools, and the duty of intellectuals. These final chapters felt like essays less related to the small town.
Hicks glumly concludes by noting, when it comes to small towns, an intellectual will observe,
...the majority of the people are interested only in their own affairs and have little concern for the common good. He will learn that most public issues are confused by factionalism, prejudice, stupidity, and a most unenlightened selfishness.
The small town in question is called Roxborough but in reality was Hicks's hometown, the rural Grafton, NY, characterized in part by "intense clannishness, suspicion of outsiders, hostility to new ideas, resistance to change." It's not surprising his neighbors were displeased by what they read in Small Town (1946).
Along with somewhat snobbish observations on the more quotidian facets of rural life Hicks's cultural critique is not short on eerily relatable insights, including,
Political thinking also has deteriorated. Republicanism meant something in the past, or, rather, a series of things. At first it meant the preservation of the union and the freedom of the slaves. Then it meant high tariffs, the full dinner pail, and American prosperity. And in the twenties it meant the leadership of business interests. Most recently, however, it has meant merely opposition to Roosevelt.
Then there are the "crackpots" who "are likely to blame all our national difficulties on the fact aliens are allowed to take jobs away from good Americans or on the fact that women are not forbidden to work outside the home."
And this is from eighty years ago, fresh off the end of WWII.
Sadly, the author leaves Roxborough in the last fifth of the book as he writes more broadly about the larger society, the burden of schools, and the duty of intellectuals. These final chapters felt like essays less related to the small town.
Hicks glumly concludes by noting, when it comes to small towns, an intellectual will observe,
...the majority of the people are interested only in their own affairs and have little concern for the common good. He will learn that most public issues are confused by factionalism, prejudice, stupidity, and a most unenlightened selfishness.
Displaying 1 of 1 review