by Lucy Moore
A popular history of the decade, zipping through the salient features of
the cultural landscape (in America): Prohibition, gang violence, the
rise of jazz, inchoate Hollywood and the talkies, Ford, flappers, the
KKK and xenophobia, the Scopes trial, Lindbergh’s flight, and so on.
It’s
a fun ride, readable and instructive, though at times it reads like a
thesis, and there’s quite a lot of unattributed quoted material. Some
of the spotlights Moore shines are questionable – an entire chapter on
Jack Dempsey, but only a passing mention of Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb? An
examination of the character, scandals, and death of Warren Harding, but
nothing about Coolidge, who was president for the majority of the
decade? There’s nothing wrong with the pieces she writes – I found both
of those chapters illuminating and enjoyable – but I doubt a serious
historical work would suffer the same omissions. Some of her less
obvious choices are, on the other hand, instructive, such as the look at
how The New Yorker got its humble start. Though there’s no overall
argument to the book, I got the sense of a ‘20s in America that was a
sort of amalgam of the ‘50s and ‘60s: post-war prosperity and disposable
income, mixed with rumblings of civil rights and a fatalistic,
hedonistic rejection of normalcy and routine. In all, I came away
educated and entertained by the book, lightweight though it might be;
it’s certainly a reminder that there was never one monolithic American
culture. And no “good old days.”
three stars
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