Regular marked price: $13.00Discount Price: $11.05
Cost Savings: $1.95 (15%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.9
EAN num: 9780060956653
ISBN number: 0060956658
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: August 01, 2000
Publishing house: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Release Date: July 25, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 22277
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Prohibition.Al Capone. The President Harding scandals. The revolution of manners and morals, Black Teusday. These are only an inkling of the events and figures characterizing the wild, tumultuous era that was the Roaring Twentys. Origionaly published in 1931, Only Yesterday traces the rise if post-World War I prospecritly up tothe Wall Street crash of 1929 aganst the colorful backdropof flappers, speakeasies, the very first radio, and the scandalous rise of skirt hemlines. Hailed as an instant classic, this is Frederick Lewis Allen's vivid and definitive account of one of the twentieth century's most fascinating decades, chronicling a time of both joy and terror--when dizzing highs were quickly succeeded by heartbreaking lows.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Frederick Lewis Allen's book on the 1920's was very first published in 1931. His informal history of this time period has withstood the test of time. He identified and described the major events and trends in that decade, without the benefit of what historians like to call a "decent interval." His writing style is lively, with a keen ability to capture the essence of broad historical trends. Once again, as Faulkner so eloquently said: "The past is not dead; it is not even the past." So many elements of the `20's have parallels today, certainly the economic bubble that burst into the Great Depression, but also the use of foreign "threats" to reduce the constitutional liberties of Americans.
Allen commences his book with the end of the "War to End All Wars," prior to the adding of a "I" after the "World War." Wilson lacked the support of the broad American people for his post-war initiatives, as they had a strong desire to return to "normalcy." Allen's chapter on "The Big Red Scare" is most illuminating, showing how readily government officials could use "fear" to void the Constitution. "It was an era of lawless and disorderly defense of law and order, of unconstitutional defense of the Constitution, of suspicion and civil conflict- in a very real sense, a reign of terror." (p39). "In Hartford, while the suspects were in jail the authorities took the further precaution of arresting and incarcerating all visitors who came to see them, a friendly call being regarded as prima facie evidence of affiliation with the Communist party." (p48). "Innumerable patriotic societies had sprung up... and must conjure up new and ever greater menaces. Innumerable other gentlemen now discovered that they could defeat whatever they wanted to defeat by tarring it conspicuously with the Bolshevist brush..." (p49).
The author is equally strong examining the changes in morals. He relies heavily on the Lynn's excellent sociological work, "Middletown." Hemlines were shortened, and numerous state legislatures tried to pass laws specifying, by inches, how much female flesh could be exposed. It was also an era of endless political scandals, and much corruption, epitomized by the Tea Pot Dome scandal. Concerning the President of the United States, Allen says: "His liabilities were not at very first so apparent, yet they were disastrously real. Beyond the limited scope of his political experience he was `almost unbelievably ill-informed,'.... His mind was vague and fuzzy. Its quality was revealed in the clogged style of his public addresses, in his choice of turgid and maladroit language.... It was revealed even more clearly in his helplessness when confronted by questions of policy to which mere good nature could not find the answer." He could easily be describing George W Bush, but is actually describing Warren G Harding. Although America's Imperial reach was just in its infancy, still: "Only occasionally did the United States have to intervene by force of arms in other countries. The Marines ruled Haiti and restored order in Nicaragua; but in general the country extended its empire not by military conquest or political dictation, but by financial penetration. (p146). It was also another era that pitted fundamentalist religion against science, and Allen does a good job of describing the forces behind the Scopes trial.
Certainly one of the largest parallels was the increase in financial speculation that, as we know now, left at least a 10 year "hangover," and was only finally resolved by another "Great War." Allen devotes an entire chapter to the less well remembered real estate rush, and speculation in Florida. He also devoted a chapter to the more familiar stock market bubble and bust. "The market, as Max Winkler said, was discounting not only the future but the hereafter." And for those currently contemplating the sorry state of their "301k's", "It seems probable... that stocks have been passing not so much from the strong to the weak as from the smart to the dumb." (p269). And in his chapter entitled "Crash," another thought for our times: "Prosperity is more than an economic condition; it is a state of mind. The Big Bull Market had been more than the climax of a business cycle; it had been the climax of a cycle in American mass thinking and mass emotion." (p281)
Overall, an excellent book for our times, now that we might have more time for the simpler pleasures, like reading.
Rated by buyers -
I remember reading this book some 30 years ago. I don't know where I got it from and I no longer have it but it has coloured my thinking about finance, morals, the markets, everything about modern day life in the late 20th and early 21st century ever since. It has all come around again but thankfully and hopefully economists now know more about the way that the financial world works and the present difficulties will not last as long as the previous one - it took WW2 to get the Western world back on its feet!
Rated by buyers -
I read this for the very first time when I was in sixth grade and it continues to be one of my favorite books on the 1920's.
I will agree that maybe it's not the best place to start for a complete Jazz Age neophyte because it requires the reader to get over his/her modern-day attitudes, but after a little starter research, it's fascinating.
Obviously, since it was very first published in 1931, it lacks long-term analysis, which some people might find frustrating. Personally, I think that the fact that it was written when these events and views were still so fresh, and that it does not have modern ideas projected onto it, makes it a valuable and interesting comparison to later perspectives on the decade.
Rated by buyers -
This book is a wonderful source of information about the 1920s in the USA. It has lots of facts and makes them personal with anecdotes and the sort of details about daily life that textbooks omit. It was written shortly after the decade and still holds as one of the best sources of information about the decade.
Rated by buyers -
This is an excellent historical book, on the zeitgeist of the 1920's.It reflects upon all the major people,places,and things that define the epoch of American 1920's.If you had to read one book about that excessive time period of vanity,i would definately recommend this one.It's the best of the genre.Not all aspects of the 20s are covered here.Yet,it would be too cumbersome and boring to read if any longer.The parallels of the 20s to the later 1980's is quite amazing.The same beliefs developed,yet with different characters playing the parts.Time has not whithered the potent veracity of the book. If you're doing a history class project,Frederick Allen's respective on the 1920's,is the ideal quick reference from the era.
Find other books like this one:
