Classic Country Toys: An Illustrated History of American Playthings

In Classic Country Toys, Bruce Wexler takes us all on a trip down memory lane, and beyond, by providing an illustrated history of playthings with a country theme from 1880 to the present day. Here in clear, detailed color photographs are over 150 important landmark toys of all kinds--from Marx farm trucks, Buddy-L fire trucks, Tonka pickups, Howdy Doody dolls, Cabbage Patch Kids, Red Ryder BB guns, Fanner cap pistols, Tootsietoy cars, and Woodhaven and Ertl farm machinery through to modern classics like Dukes of Hazzard action figures and Woody from Toy Story. Through professional photography, each toy is featured in close-up detail to highlight its most special qualities, including the inventive ways the toys’ young owners used them. All toys, from the collection of the World’s Largest Toy Museum in Branson, Missouri, are guaranteed to help us recapture a cherished piece of childhood. At once a tribute to America’s rural roots and a joyful reminder of how much one doll or toy can matter, this fascinating illustrated history will warm the hearts of toy-lovers young and old. -- Provided by publisher.

Bruce Wexler has had a lifelong fascination with the cultural history of America, particularly the vast expanse of real rural America that separates the coasts. He is a lifelong collector of Americana, including toys, which he believes succinctly chronicle the times they stem from. He has written several books on these subjects including The Wild, Wild West of Louis L’Amour, The Wild West Catalog, The Authentic South of Gone with the Wind, and The Illustrated Directory of Toys.