Discount Price: $16.81
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: 973.91
EAN num: 9780393311341
ISBN number: 0393311341
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 544
Printing Date: 1994-04
Publishing house: W. W. Norton & Company
Sale Popularity Level: 116904
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
No two decades have done more to shape the character of late 20th-century American life thatn the 1920s and 1930s, when prosperity and depression deeply transformed society. These were the years when the new mass consumer culture of the Roaring Twenties - the automobile, electricity, radio, motion pictures and advertising - fundamentally altered how Americans worked and played, how they ate and dressed, and how they thought about themselves and saw one another. These were the years when the Great Depression shook the country's faith in traditional values and institutions, when women very first did battle for an equal rights amendment, when prohibition came in and went out, and when Franklin D. Roosevelt became 'commander in chief of a generation'. Other books in this series are 'Pivotal Decades 1900-20' and 'The Proud Decades 1941-60'.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Anxious Decades is a volume in the Norton Twentieth Century America Series that addresses the decades of the twenties and the thirties. Michael E. Parrish has taken on the challenging task of giving us a consice volume addressing all of the societal, political, and economic trends that occured during these vastly different decades.
The 1920's, known as the "roaring twenties" were indeed years of Prosperity and good times - the era of the flappers, the rising stock markets, the rebirth of the KKK, and rising hemlines. Parrish devotes the very first half of his tome to these years. He does an admirable job of describing the societal changes that America encountered during the decade, and a good job of describing the economic progression through between the end of the Wilson administration and the great crash of 1929. He does not address the political scene quite as much as the other two, but that can be easily blamed on the administrations that were in force during the years - Harding & "Silent Cal" Coolidge, who once famously quipped that the business of America is business.
The second half of the volume focuses on the years between the Stock Market crash and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I found this portion of the book to be much more enjoyable than the very first (probably because I am very interested in the era of Roosevelt). I feel that Parrish does an outstanding job in describing the economic devasation felt by Americans of most classes (except, of course, some of the super rich), and how that translated into the social ills that befell the nation in the 1930's. He also delves much more into the political realm in this portion of his work, since Roosevelt's new deal directly impacted so many Americans during these years. His chapter on the Intellectuals and the Depression was most fascinating, and a valuable addition to my knowledge about this class of people during these years.
Overall, Parrish has provided us with a pretty good volume describing these years; he does not go into great detail for most individual items, since this is really a work that is supposed to be a high level overview of these two crucial decades in American History.
Rated by buyers 
-
Parrish does a solid job of covering the years leading up to the Great Depression including the Presidencies of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. He also notes the 1920s and the growing income differences between the wealthy and the growing number of poor in the nation.
He focuses a lot of the text on FDR and the New Deal and does an admirable job on at least highlighting some of the main points of the New Deal and the successes and failures of some of the programs.
It's a good book for a history class or to just learn more about the years leading up to the Great Depression and FDR's attempts at dragging America out of the economic disaster of the 1930s.
Rated by buyers -
Parrish's focus on individuals is the book's strength. Parrish is a true synthesis historian. For example, Parrish had a balanced approached of synthesizing the traditional views of the Great Depression with more non-traditional issues. He discussed the traditional topics of poverty, lost fortunes, and food lines. Yet he also had sections of neglected topics like the disruption on family life, the popularity of sex in the film industry, and how many had positive views of the Great Depression. He concluded: "The Great Depression drove some Americans apart and simultaneously brought others together in a common cause. For some the Depression confirmed the rottenness of capitalism and the need for revolution. For others it would be the best of times, when people reached out to help others, and when the government took the side of the underdog to battle injustice."
Rated by buyers -
...Parrish's focus on individuals is the book's strength. Parrish is a true synthesis historian. For example, Parrish had a balanced approached of synthesizing the traditional views of the Great Depression with more non-traditional issues. He discussed the traditional topics of poverty, lost fortunes, and food lines. Yet he also had sections of neglected topics like the disruption on family life, the popularity of sex in the film industry, and how many had positive views of the Great Depression. He concluded: "The Great Depression drove some Americans apart and simultaneously brought others together in a common cause. For some the Depression confirmed the rottenness of capitalism and the need for revolution. For others it would be the best of times, when people reached out to help others, and when the government took the side of the underdog to battle injustice."
Rated by buyers -
Parrish did an admirable job of balancing traditional topics and
non-traditional topics. For example, in chapter one and two he focused upon two influential white males, President Harding and Henry Ford. Yet in chapter 7 he talked about the struggles by women for equality in the workplace and politics. He had extensive comments on poor farmers and other laborers in chapter four. Part two in his book sways mainly to legislations and influential white politicians in the 1930's. While revisionists may argue that he failed to include more stories on influential women and minorities, one may argue that Parrish exposed the lack of important women and minorities in the 1930's.
Find other books like this one:
