+ Booklist 17:151 Ja ’21
“Never is Mr Rhodes dull, never does brilliancy become an obsession with him, but his writings on American days and ways are of decided value.” G. M. H.
+ Boston Transcript p3 D 11 ’20 360w
“‘American towns and people’ has its classic prototype in Henry James’s ‘The American scene,’ but it is a version highly journalized and simplified, intended not so much to interpret as to amuse. In this doubtless quite as important capacity, it for the most part succeeds admirably, only at times seeming a little fatuous, a little too effusive, a bit bland perhaps.”
+ − Dial 70:231 F ’21 50w
“Generally speaking, Mr Rhodes only sees about one-third of his subject. He sees the Four hundred, but not what O. Henry called the Four million. The book is a credit to its publishers, and is beautifully illustrated. If it is one-sided or no-sided, it is at any rate written in a swift, bright style, illuminated by a keen sense of the comic.”
+ − N Y Times p8 D 5 ’20 1600w
“The unusually discriminating comment of this book is matched by exceptionally good pictures.”
+ Outlook 126:768 D 29 ’20 30w + R of Rs 63:112 Ja ’21 50w
“To have discovered the individuality of some of our American cities and to have in so many little things shown exactly in what it consists, is no small achievement. So much for the social student’s appreciation of this book. As a piece of descriptive writing, its excellence is likely to appeal to a much wider circle.” B. L.