America Moved: Booth Tarkington’s Memoirs of Time and Place, 1869–1928 (Jeremy Beer)

A forgotten, but once-famous, author's autobiographical writings about turn-of-the-twentieth century Indiana and America. And of why nostalgia is pointless and destructive for today's Right.

The written version of this review can be found here:

https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/12/08/america-moved-booth-tarkingtons-memoirs-of-time-and-place-1869-1928-jeremy-beer/

We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site:

https://www.theworthyhouse.com

and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here:

https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email

This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated).

"A hundred years ago, Booth Tarkington was probably the most famous and successful author in America. But today, even in Indiana, his birthplace and the state with which he is forever associated, and where I live, Tarkington is forgotten. Purdue University has a dormitory, Tarkington Hall, at which my late father was a faculty advisor. Pathetically, the Hall’s website says of Tarkington only that he was “a Purdue student of two years who as an alumnus, made multiple generous donations to Purdue.” Time has left Tarkington behind. Perhaps this is fitting, though, because he was entranced and bound by nostalgia, an understandable but ultimately pointless guiding principle." . . .