America in the Twenties: A HistoryThe twenties are both the most derided decade in American history, and the most glamorous. In a sense, the twenties were the first decade of the twentieth century, with the Great War serving as the death agony of the nineteenth. That is why the period can seem so familiar to us. More surprising is to find large areas of American life still in the grip of the Victorian/Puritan/frontier past. It was the struggle between these two worlds that gave tension and shape to this hectic era. All across American life there was a deep break in continuity, with the sense of release that liberation brings, along with all the anxiety occasioned by the unknown. Here is a work of real and enduring history about a period of doubt and crisis at once familiar and distant. It is not just an anecdotal account of the twenties--although it reads with the pace and excitement of the best fiction--but a major story which views the decade as a crucial watershed in American experience. Perrett brings to life the crosscurrents of change and innovation that marked America's transition from innocence to maturity: the rise of the unions and radicalism, the changing role of women, the recognition of Black America. He depicts the revolution in standards and taste that followed the creation of the movie, broadcasting and publishing industries; the rise of jazz, modern fiction and an unselfconscious sexuality; and the dawning of a new, nomadic American life. He also traces the decline in faith, the collapse of old ideals, the loss of community and all the mixed blessings of liberation and mechanical progress that characterized the era. In them he recognizes the side-by-side existence of the old and the new and points to the conflicts, tensions and sense of excitement that this duality created. And he provides enlightening descriptions of the beginnings of many institutions, systems and ideas we now take for granted, from psychoanalysis, mass production and Time magazine to consumer credit, sex education and hard-sell advertising. This is the definitive portrait of an epoch that is endlessly fascinating and complex in its own right--and even more intriguing for its striking similarities and contrasts to the present age.--Adapted from book jacket. |
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