Nine tales that bring to life the early 20th century as witnessed by one of America's most well-known painters. Thomas Hart Benton sketched fiddlers and farm wives, preachers and soldiers. Though his lithographs depict the past, the people he portrayed face issues that are front and center today: corruption, women's rights, racial inequality. A "book to read for anyone interested in American values and history, told in lingering prose that sinks into the soul."--New York Journal of Books