1. Social, Economic and Historical Setting of the Community -- 2. Springdale's Image of Itself -- 3. The Major Dimensions of Social and Economic Class -- 4. Springdale and the Mass Society -- 5. The Business Character of Village Politics -- 6. The Prosperous Farmers and Town Government -- 7. The Clash of Class Interests in School Politics -- 8. Reciprocal Political Relations between Springdale and Mass Society -- 9. Religion and the Affirmation of the Present -- 10. Community Integration Through Leadership -- 11. Personality and the Minimization of Personal Conflicts -- 12. A Theory of the Contemporary American Community -- 13. Methods of Community Research -- 14. Ethical and Bureaucratic Implications of Community Research -- Afterword / Arthur J. Vidich.

Granville Hicks was one of America's most influential literary and social critics. Along with Malcolm Cowley, F. O. Matthiessen, Max Eastman, Alfred Kazin, and others, he shaped the cultural landscape of 20th-century America. In 1946 Hicks published Small Town, a portrait of life in the rural crossroads of Grafton, N.Y., where he had moved after being fired from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for his left-wing political views. In this book, he combines a kind of hand-crafted ethnographic research with personal reflections on the qualities of small town life that were being threatened by spreading cities and suburbs. He eloquently tried to define the essential qualities of small town community life and to link them to the best features of American culture. The book sparked numerous articles and debates in a baby-boom America nervously on the move. Long out of print, this classic of cultural criticism speaks powerfully to a new generation seeking to reconnect with a sense of place in American life, both rural and urban. An unaffected, deeply felt portrait of one such place by one of the best American critics, it should find a new home as a vivid reminder of what we have lost-and what we might still be able to protect.