Reacting against the accelerating pace of modern life and too-much-information technology, young urban dwellers are carving out a new space, one brilliantly surveyed in United States of Americana. Here we find barbers who instruct men to unplug the Norelco and try their (shaky) hand at shaving with a straight razor; manufacturers of high-end leather goods that outsource to the Amish rather than to India; DJs who rely on wax cylinders instead of digital files; restaurants where wild boar appears on the bill of fare (and the walls); and work wear that once saved the lives of turn-of-the-century Alaskan miners, now reinterpreted for the runways of Paris and Milan.

This isn’t mere nostalgia, but a conscious celebration of community and sustainability. United States of Americana is the first comprehensive guide to the sounds, sights, tastes, and colorful characters that populate this new old-fashioned world, with topics including:

• The rise and evolution of alt-country music and the Americana genre (Fleet Foxes, Wilco, the Decemberists, and T-Bone Burnett) and the legends of country, blues, gospel and folk (Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams, Leadbelly)
• American work wear and heritage clothing and footwear like Red Wing Boots, Pendleton, Filson, and Carhartt
• Prohibition and pre-Prohibition era cocktails (Old Fashioned, Gin Fizz, Sidecar) and the speakeasy renaissance
• Nose-to-tail butchering and raising backyard chickens
• Straight razor shaving and old-fashioned barber shops
• Burlesque and circuses
• The resurgence of the vinyl LP
• Home canning, pickling and preserving
• The D.I.Y. handmade crafts movement (knitting, needlepoint, soap making)