Once Upon a Time: The Way America Was

Eric Sloane, Journalist, Writer and Artist spent his life finding and presenting the best of America from the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. He started out as an antique tool collector, then branched out into HOW things were done in simpler days. A visit to any of his books is a journey into a kinder, gentler past, with people who were closer to the land, and understood it far better than we do. If you love Early America, any of Sloan's books are guidebooks into that wonderful time. His prose is lyrical, and his sketches are masterful. "Once Upon a time: The Way America Was" is a lovely introduction to his world.

This is a book worth reading to young children and even thoe in the Middle School years - it is about growing up and the value of good, hard work!

I have the full set of these books and I read them over and over. There is so much good information about how things used to be for our ancestors. If you’re into history, working with your hands, or you just enjoy old time folk lore - you should really read all of Eric Sloane’s books!

Mr. Sloane writes in a way that makes you think you're talking with a friend. His books are well researched and he writes from facts. However, like I said, his writing style is casual. I love all of his books.

This book is a good addition to some older history books that used to teach real American history and not history that is slanted left.

Sloane's drawings depict a time gone by, with much nostalgia and remarkable skill. But he never foresaw a time when we might have to abandon much of our technology to save our environment and return to a simpler way of life. This book could be a blueprint for us when it becomes necessary. We have forgotten how to survive by the work of our hands and the skill of our ingenuity. If you wonder what life was like and what it might be like again, here is the blueprint. It inspires a feeling of reverence for raw materials and the principle of recycling everything, leaving no waste at all. I left off the fifth star because of Sloane's rather adamant conservatism, irritating to us, even naive, but a symptom of his time. We can't go back, or even prevent our own evolution, but we can learn from the past. If he were producing this today, he might concede that.

excellent book :: must have

This book's subject matter mostly deals with the eastern part of the United States. It was still interesting to this old westerner because of the skills it took to settle new country. Today people mostly specialize in one skill set and hire specialists to build their house, work on their car, or whatever their specialty does not cover. During the early years, people had to be able to build their own shelter, obtain their own food, heat their homes. etc. I wonder if modern people would be up to the challenge of pioneer living.